MODERN  MISSIONS 

HELD  WITH 

WALNUT-  ST,  BAPTIST  CHURCH 

* 

j 

J 

4V- 

p  LOUISVilLLE,  KY. 


2  =-4,  1S92. 


l.OUISVILLE,  KY.  : 

EAPTIST  BOOK  CONCERN, 
, ''  1892. 


V, 


:  ’V  ■  . 

r  ^  i*  Vv  »  ■  X 


i 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


MODERN  MISSIONS, 

HELD  WITH 

WALNUT  ST.  BAPTIST  CHURCH 

LOUiSV/ILLE,  KY. 

:2-4,  189:2. 


LOUISVILLE,  KY.  : 
BAPTIST  BOOK  CONCERN, 


% 


CENTENNIAL  GELtBRATION  OF  MODERN 

MISSIONS. 


FIRST  DAY — Sunday,  October  2. 

The  Centennial  Committee  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Con¬ 
vention  consists  of  the  following  brethren: 

T.  T.  Eaton,  D.D.,LL.D.,  Chairman. 

H.  H.  Harris,  LL.D. 

F.  M.  Ellis,  D.D. 

I.  T.  Tichenor,  D.D. 

T.  H.  Pritchard,  D.D. 

The  Committee,  with  many  brethren  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  were  present. 

The  venerable  Robert  Ryland,  D.D.,  was  called  to  the 
chair. 

Dr.  W.  H.  Williams,  of  St.  Louis,  invoked  the  divine  bene¬ 
diction. 

After  singing,  prayer  was  offered  by  Rev.  B.  D.  Gray,  D.D., 
of  Mississippi. 

Pastor  T.  T.  Eaton  made  the  following  address  of  welcome: 

Brethren  and  Fathers: — To  me  has  been  assigned  the  pleasant 
duty  of  bidding  you  welcome.  We  are  gathered  to  celebrate  the  centen¬ 
nial  anniversary  of  the  beginning  of  modern  missions.  Just  one  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago  to-day  was  organized  in  Kettering,  England,  the  first 
society  of  modern  times  for  giving  the  gospel  to  the  heathen.  Presently 
the  people  from  all  the  world  will  be  assembling  in  Chicago  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  commemorating  the  adding  of  a  new  continent  to  the  map  of  the 
world,  and  that  is  well.  But  what  is  the  discovery  of  a  continent  com¬ 
pared  to  the  beginning  of  modern  missions?  Columbus  discovered 
America,  but  Carey  discovered  the  world.  In  behalf  of  the  Baptists  of 
Kentucky,  in  behalf  of  the  denomination  and  the  community  in  Louis¬ 
ville,  and  in  behalf  of  this  grand  old  church  with  whom  you  meet,  I  bid 
you  welcome.  It  is  well  that  you  have  come;  well  for  you  in  the  blessing 
you  will  receive  in  your  labors  of  love  among  us;  well  for  us  in  the  in, 
struction  and  inspiration  we  will  derive  from  your  coming  and  from  the 
glad  messages  you  bring,  and  well  for  the  cause  of  B[im  who  loved  us  and 
gave  himself  for  us,  and  whose  right  it  is  to  reign. 


4 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


Prof.  H.  Harris,  LL.D.,  spoke  on 

Results  of  a  Century  of  Missions. 

The  last  hundred  years  have  seen  greater  and  more  varied  progress 
than  any  other  like  period  in  the  history  of  mankind*  A  map  of  the 
world  as  now  printed  on  great  power  presses  is  not  only  immensely 
superior  in  finish  and  accuracy,  but  it  also  presents  a  different  world 
from  that  of  its  prototype,  laboriously  drawn  with  goose-quill  pen  on 
pieces  of  paper  pasted  together,  and  hung  upon  the  walls  of  the  cobbler’s 
shop  at  Moulton  in  1792.  Since  that  time  our  own  country  has  more 
than  doubled  its  domain  and  increased  its  population  about  fifteen  fold. 
England  has  vastly  extended  her  sway  and  changed  her  home  govern¬ 
ment  from  a  personal  to  a  constitutional  sovereignty.  Germany  and 
Italy  have  effected  unification  with  great  advances  in  individual  free¬ 
dom.  Prance,  Mexico,  Central  and  South  America  have  turned  from 
monarchial  to  democratic  forms  of  government.  Insurrections,  rebel¬ 
lions,  and  revolutions — called  one  or  other  according  to  the  number 
and  success  of  parties  engaged — have  torn  down  the  Bastiles  of  ancient 
custom  and  used  their  stones  to  pave  the  pathway  of  populaj*  progress. 
Great  wars  have  introduced  such  improvements  in  the  art  of  wholesale 
destruction  as  to  make  personal  bravery  of  no  avail  and  armed  conflict  a 
terror. 

More  notable  still  has  been  the  advance  in  the  arts  of  peace.  New 
processes  of  mining  and  of  metalurgy  have  unlocked  rich  stores  laid  up 
in  the  heart  of  the  earth.  Machines  without  number  have  been  devised 
for  cultivating  the  soil,  for  manufacturing  and  transporting  its  products, 
and  for  utilizing  in  man’s  service  the  strength  of  inferior  animals  and 
the  forces  that  lurk  in  coal,  in  water,  even  in  the  lightings.  The  whole 
system  of  steamboats,  railways  and  electrical  appliances  belong  to  the 
nineteenth  century.  Carey  had  a  prosperous  voyage  from  London  to 
Calcutta.  It  occupied  five  months  lacking  one  day.  News  of  his  arrival 
did  not  reach  home  for  about  a  year.  To-day  one  can  make  the  trip  in 
.two  weeks  and  cable  the  news  instantly. 

Greatest  of  all  has  been  the  progress  in  commercial  and  social  life. 
A  hundred  years  ago  more  than  half  the  human  family  were  entirely 
-cut  off  from  the  more  enlightened  parts  of  earth,  or  connected  only 
through  a  few  trading  posts  controlled  by  avaricious  corporations.  The 
opium  wars  with  China,  the  Sepoy  troubles  in  India,  like  conflicts  else¬ 
where,  explorations  in  Central  Africa,  and  commercial  treaties  more  or 
less  extorted,  have  now  united  the  whole  world  into  one  body  politic, 
with  overland  wires  and  submarine  cables  for  its  nerves,  and  a  system 
of  banks  and  post  offices  for  the  arteries  and  veins  of  its  vital  circulation. 
The  few  books  and  fewer  periodicals  of  1792  has  developed  into  the 
mighty  flood  of  literature  that  has  fertilized,  sometimes  disastrously 
overflowed,  the  richest  of  our  intellectual  lands.  All  the  arts  and 
.sciences  have  moved  with  rapid  stride. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


5 


We  do  not  forget  that  change  is  not  always  improvement,  that  move¬ 
ment  may  be  backward,  and  yet  it  remains  indisputably  true  that  the 
closing  century,  far  beyond  any  of  its  predecessors,  has  been  progressive. 
Has  Christian  activity  kept  pace  with  the  march  of  humanity?  Has  the 
faith  delivered  once  for  all  more  than  eighteen  hundred  years  ago, 
proved  suitable  to  its  new  environment?  Amid  the  triumphs  of  science, 
has  grace  also  reigned?  In  the  general  growth  of  knowledge,  has 
the  knowledge  of  Jesus  increased?  In  an  intensely  practical  age,  has  the 
law  of  love  been  more  clearly  exemplified?  Have  Christian  people  dur¬ 
ing  the  century  been  merely  borne  along  on  a  tidal  wave  of  natural 
evolution,  or  have  their  faith  and  their  zeal  been  potent  agencies  in 
starting  and  swelling  the  tide  of  progress?  These  questions  will  find 
answer  in  considering  the  results  of  the  modern  missionary  movement. 

In  the  complex  organization  of  human  society,  results  are  either  direct 
or  indirect — the  former,  such  as  flow  primarily  and  chiefly  from  the 
assigned  cause,  being  only  modified  and  helped  by  co-operating  influ¬ 
ences;  the  latter,  such  as  flow  mainly  from  other  forces,  but  these  evoked, 
stimulated  or  materially  assisted  by  the  given  cause.  The  indirect 
results  of  a  great  moral  influence  are  naturally  more  in  number  than  the 
direct,  but  hard  to  trace  out  and  establish  clearly.  They  must  in  the 
present  discussion  be  passed  over  with  very  brief  notice. 

One  other  prefatory  remark.  The  term  missions  suggests  a  very  wide 
theme,  which  for  convenience  has  been  divided  into  City,  State,  Home 
and  Foreign  Missions,  with  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  Spirit, 
diversities  of  ministrations,  but  the  same  Lord,  diversities  of  workings, 
but  the  same  God.  Time  would  fail  to  discuss  them  all.  I  have  chosen 
that  one  with  which  I  am  more  particularly  connected  and  which  in 
some  sort  embraces  the  rest.  The  world  is  more  than  our  country,  our 
State,  our  community.  A  wave  started  in  some  deep  bay  moves  out  to 
the  ocean,  and  its  height  is  less  and  less  as  the  shores  recede.  But  a 
tidal  wave  raised  by  sun  and  moon  on  the  broad  bosom  of  the  world¬ 
embracing  sea  runs  up  into  the  bay  and  rises  higher  and  higher  to  its 
head.  If  the  constraining  love  of  Christ  shall  raise  within  us  an  interest 
in  the  salvation  of  mankind  in  general,  we  cannot  fail  to  be  more  and 
more  interested  in  those  people  who  are  nearer  to  us. 

INDIRECT  RESULTS. 

1.  Among  the  indirect  results  of  modern  missions  one  of  the  earliest 
and  most  obvious  is  the  science  of  Comparative  Philology.  Dr.  Carey 
was  pre-eminent  as  a  linguist  and  for  thirty  years  was  Professor  of  Sans¬ 
crit  and  Bengali.  Ability  to  master  foreign  tongues  has  always  been 
counted  one  of  the  qualifications  for  mission  work.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  assert  that  the  influence  thus  set  in  motion  has  completely  revolution¬ 
ized  all  philological  study  and  extended  to  all  other  lines  of  investiga¬ 
tion  the  benefits  of  the  Comparative  method.  It  has  given  a  stimulus  to 
all  forms  of  intellectual  activity,  and  is  felt  in  every  school  from  the 


6 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


primary  grades  to  the  great  universities.  The  literary  world  would  be 
poor  indeed  if  stripped  of  all  it  owes  indirectly  to  missionaries. 

2.  Along  with  this  has  gone  the  contribution  to  our  stores  of  knowl¬ 
edge  in  geography  and  natural  history,  for  missionaries  have  necessarily 
been  explorers,  botanists,  naturalists,  anthropologists.  To  take  one  in¬ 
stance  out  of  many  not  a  few  of  us  can  remember  when  maps  of  equatorial 
Africa  were  a  blank,  and  the  ancient  question  about  the  sources  of  the 
Nile  was  still  a  mystery.  Livingstone  changed  all  that. 

3.  A  third  result  of  missions,  indirect  and  incidental,  may  be  seen  in 
the  extension  of  arts  and  habits  of  civilized  society.  Traders  seek 
money,  missionaries  are  fishers  of  men.  Eighty  years  ago  the  Fiji 
Islanders  were  naked  cannibals,  they  are  now  clothed  and  in  their  right 
mind,  a  Christian  community.  The  progress  of  Japan,  one  of  the  mar¬ 
vels  of  the  century,  is  unquestionably  due  more  to  the  Christian  religion 
than  to  any  other  one  cause.  These  are  but  samples  of  a  work  silently 
and  surely  going  on  in  every  mission-field. 

4.  A  fourth  result  to  which  missionaries  have  largely  contributed,  is 
seen  in  the  gradual  abatement  of  mutual  jealousy  and  the  steady  growth 
of  more  kindly  feeling  between  men  of  different  races  and  nations,  which 
has  made  it  possible  for  diplomacy  to  negotiate  mutually  advantageous 
treaties  instead  of  cruel  conquest  and  fierce  oppression  of  the  weaker  by 
the  stronger.  A  notable  dllustration  may  be  seen  in  our  own  western 
country  in  comparing  those  Indians  who  have  been  held  in  check  only 
by  rifles,  with  those  others  who  have  been  sought  out  by  faithful  preach¬ 
ers  of  the  gospel. 

Much  more  might  be  said  of  the  indirect  results  of  modern  missions, 
but  we  must  hasten  to  consider  some  of  the 

DIRECT  RESULTS. 

These  may  be  grouped  under  four  leading  statements. 

1.  The  reflex  influence  of  Missions. 

This  is  seen  in  the  enlargement  of  heart  and  mind  among  Christians 
at  home.  Our  fathers  of  a  hundred  years  ago  had  to  meet  not  only  the 
sneering  ridicule  of  unbelievers,  and  violent  opposition  from  the  worldly- 
wise,  but,  far  harder  to  bear,  indifference  on  the  part  of  really  pious 
people  and  outspoken  skepticism  about  the  possibility  of  barbarians  ac¬ 
cepting  Christ.  So  it  was  also  in  apostolic  days.  The  church  at  Jeru¬ 
salem,  though  baptized  in  the  Holy  Spirit,  verily  thought  the  new  faith 
must  be  kept  within  the  old  bounds  of  national  seclusion,  and  actually 
contended  with  Peter  because  he  had  gone  with  the  Word  of  Life  to  men 
uncircumcised.  They  had  heard  the  phrases  “all  the  world,”  and  “all 
nations,”  and  “unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,”  but  they  had  not 
reached  the  idea  of  a  universal  religion  suited  to  the  real  wants  of  all 
men  everywhere. 

The  “Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,” 
formed  in  1701  was  designed  in  the  words  of  its  charter  “for  the  relig- 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


7 


ious  instruction  of  the  queen’s  subjects  beyond  the  seas;  for  the  mainten¬ 
ance  of  clergymen  in  the  plantations,  colonies  and  factories  of  Great 
Britain;  and  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel  in  those  parts.”  Similarly 
limited  in  scope  were  the  Danish  missions  of  the  18th  century,  and  in 
fact  all  others  of  that  time.  How  else  could  it  be  with  men  who  believed 
in  a  Union  of  church  and  State? 

We  are  at  length  beginning  to  grasp  a  higher  and  truer  conception  of 
the  Christ,  and  to  realize  somewhat  that  the  gospel  is  for  man,  not  as  an 
Israelite,  not  as  an  Anglo-Saxon,  not  as  a  civilized  and  enlightened 
being,  but  simply  and  solely  as  a  sinner;  that  in  this  there  is  no  differ¬ 
ence,  the  same  Lord  of  all  being  rich  unto  all  that  call  upon  him;  and 
so  we  can  in  some  sort  appreciate  that  the  field  is  the  world,  and  the 
whole  world,  and  can  sing  with  the  understanding  the  Coronation  hymn. 
This  great  idea  expands  the  mind,  thrills  the  heart  into  sympathy  with 
the  mind  that  was  in  Christ  Jesus.  A  growing  tree  sends  out  its  roots 
and  gathers  material  from  the  soil,  but  before  this  can  become  a  part  of 
the  organism,  it  must  be  drawn  up  through  trunk  and  branch  and  twig, 
and  in  the  laboratory  of  the  waving  leaf  be  fitted  by  air  and  sunlight  to 
descend  again  by  the  inner  bark  and  add  every  year  another  ring  of  woody 
fibre.  So  churches  planted  in  Christian  lands  are  constantly  gathering 
in  material  through  many  feeders,  but  before  it  is  fit  to  be  incorporated 
into  the  body,  it  needs  to  be  drawn  up  into  an  atmosphere  of  world  em¬ 
bracing  love  and  wrought  upon  by  the  beams  of  the  Sun  of  righteotisness. 
Mission  work  is  to  the  churches  at  home  what  leaves  are  to  the  trees. 
In  France  and  Italy  the  mulberries  are  often  stripped  of  their  foliage  to 
feed  silk-worms — as  a  result  the  trees  are  dwarfed  and  gnarled  and  short 
lived.  So  will  it  be  with  a  church  that  does  not  develop  and  cultivate  a 
missionary  spirit.  The  maples  and  hickories  of  our  forests  are  now  put¬ 
ting  on  their  autumn  colors,  for  their  life  is  waning  into  the  sleep  of 
winter,  but  the  church  is  more  fitly  represented  by  an  olive  tree,  ever¬ 
green. 

2.  Converts  from  Heathenism. 

Another  obvious  result  of  missions  is  seen  in  the  conversion  of  at  least 
a  million  souls  out  of  every  tribe  and  tongue  and  people  and  nation.  The 
latest  tabulated  reports  put  the  communicants  of  evangelical  churches 
in  heathen  lands  at  about  800,000.  Nearly  if  not  quite  200,000  more  have 
either  paid  the  debt  of  nature  or  yielded  up  their  lives  in  martyrdom  for 
the  truth.  Add  the  uncounted  thousands  who,  like  Joseph  of  Arimathea, 
are  secret  disciples.  A  friend  who  spent  some  weeks  this  summer  with 
the  Baptist  pastor  in  Dresden,  tells  me  that  in  that  one  city  are  scores 
of  young  people  dependent  upon  their  daily  labor,  who  wish  to  be  bap¬ 
tized  but  are  hindered  because  it  would  mean  immediate  discharge  by 
their  Catholic  employers  and  being  cast  out  by  even  their  parents.  How 
much  more  does  this  fear  operate  in  ancestral-worshipping  China  or 
caste-bound  India!  The  number  of  adherents,  counting  young  children 


8 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


of  church  members  and  others  who  have  renounced  idolatry  and  are 
seeking  the  true  light,  is  put  at  three  millions — a  very  low  estimate. 
Five  millions,  in  my  judgment,  would  be  more  nearly  correct.  These 
figures,  though  large  when  compared  with  the  fewness  of  laborers,  sink 
into  insignificance  in  contrast  with  the  mass  yet  remaining  without  God 
and  without  hope  in  the  world,  the  850  millions  of  absolute  pagans,  who 
have  not  so  much  as  heard  of  a  Savior,  and  the  500  millions  of  semi¬ 
pagans,  Roman  and  Greek  Catholics  and  Mohammedans  who  ‘Teach  as 
their  doctrines  the  precepts  of  men,”  “hold  down  the  truth  in  unright¬ 
eousness”  and  veil  the  doctrines  of  grace  under  a  thick  cloud  of  soul- 
destroying  superstitions.  How  little  comparatively  has  been  done. 
Years  ago  the  entrance  to  New  York  harbor  from  the  Sound  was  ob¬ 
structed  by  a  great  mass  of  rock  around  which  the  tides  swirled  in 
treacherous  currents  and  dashec^  many  a  bark  to  destruction.  The  Fed¬ 
eral  Government  undertook  to  remove  it.  For  months  and  years  the 
work  went  on,  thousands,  millions  of  money  were  expended.  The  rock 
remained  substantially  unchanged,  the  currents  ran  on  treacherous  as 
ever,  all  the  apparent  result  was  a  few  car-loads  of  pulverized  granite, 
hoisted  little  by  little  from  a  shaft.  But  tunnels  had  been  driven  hither 
and  yon,  chambers  hewn  out,  packed  with  dynamite  and  giant  powder 
and  connected  by  wires  with  an  office  on  shore,  and  when  at  length  the 
set  time  arrived  a  child’s  finger  touching  a  button  sent  an  electric  spark, 
and  hell-gate  rock  burst  into  a  thousand  fragments.  Missionaries  in 
India,  in  China,  in  Africa,  in  Persia,  in  Italy,  have  been  pushing  along 
the  narrow  lines  of  personal  influence,  gathering  a  few  converts,  but 
planting  seeds  which  have  in  them  a  possibility  of  infinite  expansion, 
and  so  preparing  for  God’s  set  time  when  the  spark  of  his  quickening 
Spirit  shall  “cause  righteousness  and  praise  to  spring  forth  before  all 
nations.”  The  greatest  of  all  moral  forces  works  in  and  through  the 
Word  of  the  Lord.  This  leads  us  to  consider 

3.  The  Increased  Circulation  of  the  Scriptures. 

Dr.  Carey  made  Bible  translation  his  chief  business.  Before  sailing 
for  India  he  met  a  young  printer  and  said  to  him:  “We  shall  want  you  in 
a  few  years  to  print  the  Bible;  you  must  come  after  us.”  Thus  Wm. 
Ward  was  called  to  found  the  great  Printing  House  at  Serampore  which 
even  in  Carey’s  lifetime  had  issued  over  200,000  copies  of  Scripture  in 
forty  different  dialects.  In  like  manner  all  other  evangelical  mission¬ 
aries  have  labored  to  give  the  people  the  Word  of  God  in  their  own  ver¬ 
nacular.  In  not  a  few  instances  they  have  been  obliged  first  to  reduce 
the  spoken  tongues  to  a  written  form  and  introduce  the  art  of  reading. 

The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  organized  in  1804,  was  one  of 
the  first  fruits  of  missions.  A  call  had  come  from  Wales  for  a  supply  of 
Bibles.  At  a  meeting  held  to  see  what  could  be  done  our  brother,  the 
Rev.  Joseph  Hughes,  urged  a  plan  comprehensive  enough  to  embrace 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


9 


within  its  scope  the  entire  world.  This  one  Society  has  printed  of 
Bibles,  Testaments,  and  separate  portions  of  Scripture,  130  million  copies 
in  nearly  200  different  languages  and  dialects,  and  has  its  agents  to  pro¬ 
mote  their  circulation  all  over  the  world.  In  the  train  of  this  greao 
Society  have  followed  about  seventy  others,  large  and  small,  whose 
aggregate  output  has  been  over  100  million  copies.  Of  the  work  of  pri¬ 
vate  publishers  we  have  no  statistics. 

Dr.  Gust  of  the  B.  and  P.  Society  has  given  years  to  the  preparation  of 
a  list  of  versions  up  to  1890,  with  much  information  linguistic,  geograph¬ 
ical  and  bibliographical,  (see  Encyclopedia  of  Missions,  pp.  547-17).  It 
is  dangerous  I  know  for  one  man  to  manipulate  facts  and  figures  com¬ 
piled  by  another,  but  an  examination  of  his  results,  with  much  care, 
seems  to  show  that  there  were  a  hundred  years  ago  including  the  orig¬ 
inal  tongues  thirty-three  versions  of  the  Bible.  But  half  a  dozen  of 
these,  Arminian,  Syriac,  Slavonic,  Gothic,  Latin  and  Greek,  were  read 
only  by  a  few  scholars,  or  intoned  in  liturgies  by  priests  who  rarely 
comprehended  what  they  repeated.  As  many  more  were  carefully  kept 
out  of  reach  of  the  common  people.  There  were  really  less  than  twenty 
versions  of  the  Bible  in  actual  use.  Up  to  1890,  besides  numerous  revis¬ 
ions,  there  had  been  added  in  a  hundred  years  59  distinct  translations  of 
the  whole  Bible  into  as  many  different  tongues.  Of  the  New  Testament 
alone  or  conjoined  with  parts  of  the  Old,  e.g.,  the  Pentateuch  or  the 
Psalms,  there  were  in  1792  a  few  versions  made  by  Ziegenbalg,  Elliott 
and  other  eighteenth  century  missionaries,  at  present  more  than  eighty 
versions  are  printed  and  circulated.  Of  additional  translations,  yet 
incomplete,  there  had  been  printed  in  1890  portions  ranging  from  a  sin¬ 
gle  gospel  up  to  three-fourths  of  the  New  Testament  with  half  the  Old, 
no  less  than  157.  The  aggregate  of  all  these,  Bibles,  Testaments  and 
Portions,  is  330  as  against  less  than  50  a  hundred^ years  ago.  And  what 
is  more  to  the  purpose  over  300  of  them  are  in  actual  circulation,  being, 
like  the  decree  of  Ahasuerus,  sent  to  every  province  and  “to  every  peo¬ 
ple  after  their  language.”  Thibet,  the  high  table  land  of  Central  Asia, 
is  one  of  the  few  countries  that  still  closes  its  gates  against  all  foreigners 
and  is’  specially  jealous  of  religious  innovation.  But  a  company  of 
Moravians  have  been  sitting  for  years  at  the  barred  gates,  have  learned 
the  language  and  translated  into  it  the  New  Testament,  the  Pentateuch, 
the  Psalms  and  Isaiah.  When  the  army  of  Victor  Emmanuel  entered 
Rome,  September  20,  1870,  close  upon  the  heels  of  the  marching  soldiers 
came  a  colporter  with  his  pushcart  laden  with  Italian  Bibles.  A  treaty 
made  this  year  with  England  opens  Thibet  to  commerce.  It.  will  not  be 
long  before  the  United  Brethren  can  follow  the  tramp  of  an  army  carry¬ 
ing  a  Thibetan  Bible  issued  from  the  presses  of  the  B.  and  P.  B.  Society. 

4.  Preparatory  Work. 

A  fourth  result  of  this  century  of  missions,  and  the  last  to  be  consid¬ 
ered,  is  the  preparation,  for  future  work  in  the  organization  of  Christen- 


10 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


dom,  the  accumulation  of  experience,  and  the  establishment  of  good-will 
everywhere. 

According  to  the  best  available  statistics  there  are  now  at  work  of 
general  organization  for  Foreign  Missions  31  in  the  United  States,  4  in 
Canada,  29  in  Great  Britain,  28  in  Continental  Europe  and  2  in  the 
Pacific  Isles — total  94.  Of  Woman’s  Societies,  acting  independently, 
there  are  2  in  the  United  States  (the  Woman’s  Union  Interdenomina¬ 
tional,  with  rooms  in  New  York,  and  that  of  the  Friends,  in  Center  Val¬ 
ley,  Ill.),  1  in  Canada,  5  in  England,  1  in  Scotland — total  9.  Of  Woman’s 
Societies  co-operating  with  other  organizations,  there  are  30  in  the 
•  United  States,  9  in  Canada,  and  13  in  Great  Britain.  Aggregate  of  sep-^ 
arate  organizations  103,  auxiliary  52.  Add  ‘about  a  hundred  smaller 
Societies,  organized  for  a  narrow  area  or  for  special  work,  as  e.g.,  in  the 
older  missionary  fields  to  evangelize  what  is  to  them  the  home  land. 
The  seventy-odd  Bible  Societies  have  been  already  mentioned.  The 
Home  Mission,  Sunday-school  and  Tract  Societies,  the  Y.  M.  C.  Associ¬ 
ations,  and  in  fact  all  organizations  for  Christian  work,  do  something, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  illumine  the  nations  that  “sit  in  darkness  and 
in  the  shadow  of  death.”  The  regular  foreign  mission  Societies  raise 
and  expend  every  year  increasing  amounts.  The  latest  figures  foot  up 
about  eleven  million  dollars,  used  to  support,  in  round  numbers,  8,000 
missionaries  and  35,000  native  helpers. 

Different  plans  of  work  have  been  tried.  The  ardent  love  and  buoy¬ 
ant  zeal  of  enthusiastic  young  workers  impels  them  to  strike  out,  time 
and  again,  new  methods,  new  lines  of  policy,  or  more  frequently  to  try 
over  again  what  in  other  hands  have  failed.  Questions  about  methods 
have  to  be  discussed  again  and  again.  Experience  gradually  proves  all 
things  and  holds  fast  to  that  which  is  good.  The  Holy  Spirit  sent  forth 
Barnabas  and  Saul,  but  seems  to  have  left  them  in  many  matters  to  the 
guidance  of  sanctified  eommon  sense  and  accumulated  experience.  It 
would  be  folly  to  imagine  that  we  have  yet  reached  or  indeed  ever  shall 
reach,  perfection  in  our  theories,  much  less  in  our  practice,  but  it  is  a 
compliment  to  the  Careys  and  Judsons  to  say  that  by  the  help  of  their 
experience  and  all  that  has  been  since  added,  we  are  to-day  in  better 
position  than  ever  before  to  solve  the  problems  of  missionary  life. 

The  labors  of  a  hundred  years  have  wrought  almost  as  great  a  change 
in  public  sentiment  abroad  as  at  home.  It  was  perfectly  natural  for 
people  ignorant  of  Christianity  and  of  the  unselfish  love  which  it  in¬ 
spires,  to  regard  the  early  missionaries  as  either  political  spies  or  mer¬ 
cenary  prospectors.  What  else  that  heathenism  knew,  could  induce 
them  to  endure  such  hardships?  But  long  years  of  unswerving  truth 
and  kindliness,  and  particularly  in  times  of  pestilence,  or  floods,  or 
famine,  have  slowly  established  their  real  character  and  instead  of  being 
hated  or  feared,  they  are  beginning  to  be  respected,  and  loved,  even  by 
those  who  will  not  heed  their  message.  Heathen  governments  with  few 
exceptions  are  friendly  to  real  Christian  work  and  will  more  and  more 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


11 


find  out  that  it  makes  better  citizens.  The  past  century  has  been  largely 
.a  time  of  planting  and  watering  and  tilling  in  preparation  for  future 
harvests.  Some  foretastes  have  been  given  of  what  we  may  expect  in 
fuller  measure.  The  first  Karen  convert  was  won  in  1828,  the  baptized 
believers  among  that  people  now  number  27,000.  The  Telugu  mission 
yielded  little  visible  fruit  for  more  than  thirty  years,  but  then  came  the 
Pentecostal  season. 

This  preparatory  work  in  several  of  the  phases  mentioned,  is  strikingly 
illustrated  by  the  crowning  glory  of  this  century  of  missions.  Woman’s 
Work  for  Woman,  begun  in  England  about  sixty,  in  this  country  about 
thirty  years  ago.  In  a  most  important  sense  there  is  no  distinction  of 
sex  in  religion,  “there  can  be  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  neither  bond  nor 
free,  no  male  and  female;  for  all  are  one  in  Christ  Jesus.”  But  in  the 
church  as  established  on  earth  there  is  a  difference,  for  it  still  remains 
true  as  Paul  wrote  to  the  Corinthians,  that  “it  is  shameful  for  a  woman 
to  speak  in  church.”  Still  more  difference  is  there  in  the  society,  the 
manners  and  customs  of  the  world.  In  heathen  and  Mohammedan  coun¬ 
tries  a  daughter,  instead  of  bring  the  light  and  joy  of  the  house,  is  valued 
solely  for  what  she  will  fetch  in  the  market,  and  a  wife,  instead  of  being 
the  trusted  counsellor  at  her  husband’s  side,  is  a  slave  to  be  trampled 
beneath  his  feet.  In  Catholic  lands,  both  Greek  and  Roman,  the  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  weaker  vessel  is  better,  yet  still  far  below  her  proper  station 
as  prescribed  in  the  Word  of  God  and  practiced  among  evangelical 
Christians.  Woman  therefore  owes  for  this  life  far  more  than  man  to 
the  gospel,  and  being  more  benefitted  she  naturally  loves  more.  Then 
again  she  only  can  enter  the  zenana,  the  harem,  the  heathen  home,  and 
carry  there  the  word  of  life  and  liberty  the  sweet  story  of  the  Man  of 
Sorrows.  So  it  is  that  as  missionaries  who  have  access  to  the  women 
and  children,  our  devoted  sisters  are  doing  the  best  and  truest  founda¬ 
tion  work,  while  the  circles  and  bands  at  home  are  stirring  up  the  slug- 
ish  churches,  and  by  their  constant  gathering  of  many  little  rills  of 
prayer  and  praise  and  liberality  are  pouring  a  perennial  stream  into  the 
Lord’s  treasury.  Unfortunately  there  have  sometimes  been  misconcep¬ 
tions  and  misstatements  of  their  plans  and  purposes,  leading  to  jars  and 
friction  and  separate  work.  It  is  matter  of  hearty  congratulation  that 
the  Woman’s  Missionary  Union,  with  headquarters  in  Baltimore,  pro¬ 
claims  itself  “auxiliary  to  the  S.  B.  C.”  and  very  carefully  heeds  the 
apostolic  injunction  against  usurping  authority.  God  speed  their  labors! 

.To  sum  up  in  conclusion,  the  century  of  mission  work  has  brought 
near  the  ends  of  the  earth,  has  roused  many  Christians  to  some  little 
appreciation  of  their  responsibilty,  has  gained  converts  enough  to  prove 
the  universal  adaptation  of  the  gospel,  has  widely  disseminated  the 
Word  of  God,  has  laid  foundations,  gained  experience  and  effected 
organization  for  better  work  hereafter.  Prom  the  mountain  of  Galilee 
still  rings  out  in  louder  tones  the  great  command  “Make  disciples  of  all 
the  nations,”  and  from  the  bright  cloud  of  Jehovah’s  manifest  presence 


12 


CENTENNIAL.  CELEBRATION 


comes  as  of  old  the  trumpet  call  “Go  forward.”  If  we  and  our  children 
shall  prove  at  all  worthy  of  the  trust  committed  to  us,  watchful  of  our 
opportunities,  obedient  to  our  Lord,  the  next  century,  nay,  rather  the 
next  generation,  will  witness  results  an  hundred  fold  greater  and  more 
glorious.  “Instead  of  the  thorn  shall  come  up  the  fir  tree,  and  instead 
of  the  brier  shall  come  up  the  myrtle  tree;  and  it  shall  be  to  the  Lord 
for  a  name,  for  an  everlasting  sign  that  shall  not  be  cut  off.” 

The  Rev.  P.  M.  Ellis,  D.D.,  then  delivered  a  sermon,  of 
»  which  the  following  is  a  synopsis  he  kindly  prepared  for 
publication : 

THE  MORAL  BASIS  OF  MISSIONS. 

I.  Jno.  iii;14-17. 

When  the  foundations  of  the  Strasburg  Cathedral  were  rising  the 
architect  was  suddenly  cut  off.  It  was  a  sore  calamity.  Who  could 
translate  into  that  proposed  structure  the  conception  of  the  master 
builder? 

It  was  suggested  that  this  responsibility  might  be  referred  to  his 
daughter  who  had  been  associated  with  her  father  from  the  first,  and 
that  was  done. 

As  one  stands  before  that  venerable  pile  to-day  he  is  impressed  with 
architectural  misconceptions  that  doubtless  mar  the  completeness  of  the 
original  designs  of  that  Cathedral. 

Jesus  had  scarcely  finished  the  foundations  of  His  'Kingdom  when  he 
was  put  to  death  on  the  cross.  The  completion  of  his  work  was  referred 
to  the  Holy  Spirit  as  the  interpreter  of  his  plans  and  purposes  to  His 
church.  As  we  look  at  the  churches  to-day,  as  in  sects  and  sections  they 
are  toiling  upon  His  Kingdom,  we  must  account  for  the  defective  work 
done,  by  concluding  that  the  designs  of  the  divine  architect  are  but  im¬ 
perfectly  understood  by  these  builders. 

THE  MISSIONARY  IDEA. 

Which  is  our  Lord’s  conception  is  not  only  not  understood  but  often 
misunderstood.  Is  it  Christ’s  plan  to  convert  the  world,  by  means  of  the 
church,  or  has  he  sent  forth  His  church  to  gather  out  from  among  the 
nations  a  people  for  himself  ?  Whichever  of  these  views  we  take  will 
largely  determine,  for  us,  our  methods  and  aims  in  our  work  for  and  in 
missions. 

Our  methods,  if  approved  of  God,  must  be  adjusted  to  the  divine  pur¬ 
pose  in  missions. 

The  impulse  to  missionary  endeavor  must  be  begotten  in  us  by  the 
love  of  God,  not  our  love  for  Him,  but  His  love  in  us.  This  love  which 
John  makes  the  assurance  of  eternal  life,  and  is  as  Paul  tells  us  the  con¬ 
straining  power  of  the  new  life.  It  is  the  love  of  God,  that  sent  forth 


OP  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


13 


his  son  to  die  for  sinners — in  us  that  sends  us  forth  to  serve,  and  if  need 
be  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren.  In  this  love  is  to  be  found 
the  evidence  of  our  fellowship  with  the  Father  and  with  his  Son  Jesus 
Christ. 

To  refuse  to  serve  men  in  a  ministry  of  such  self-denial  is  to  repudiate 
the  love  of  God.  This  love  that  impels  us  to  such  self-denial  for  others 
moreover  distinguishes  us  as  children  of  God  from  the  children  of  the 
devil.  Hence  in  this  love,  awakened  and  impelled  by  the  love  of  God  in 
us,  is  to  be  found  the  mainspring  of  missions. 

The  witness  of  a  redeemed  church  to  this  redeeming  love  of  Christ  for 
man,  approved  by  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  work  of  the  New  Testament 
church. 

If  this  be  true  then  in  such  a  work  there  can  be  no  proxies,  because  a 
personal  conviction  of  duty  and  an  individual  sense  of  responsibility  are 
inseparable  in  such  a  service. 

It  makes  each  individual  believer  in  Christ  a  witness  to  this  love  and 
also  a  herald  of  it  to  others,  as  it  did  .Andrew  to  Peter,  Philip  to  Na¬ 
thaniel  and  the  woman  sf  Samaria  to  her  neighbors. 

The  fact  is  this  sense  of  our  love  of  God,  and  our  love  to  God  makes 
priesthood  as  universal  as  experimental  salvation  is  personal.  A  regen¬ 
erated  church  is  therefore,  through  this  elective  love  of  God,  a  “spiritual 
house,”  a  “holy  priesthood;  to  offer  up  spiritual  sacrifices  acceptable  to 
God  through  Christ.”  Aye,  a  royal  priesthood  *  *  *  that  ye  may 

show  forth  the  excellencies  of  Him  who  hath  called  you  out  of  darkness 
into  his  marvelous  light,”  and,  hence,  the  duty  of  witnessing  to  the  gos¬ 
pel  of  this  grace  of  God  is  not  only  the  right  but  the  personal  duty  and 
privilege  of  Christian  discipleship. 

Again,  the  work  to  which  the  divine  love  sends  us  forth,  is  not  so 
much  a  work /or  God  as  it  is  a  work  with  God.  We  are  not  servants,  but 
children  who  serve  in  love.  Under  this  divine  impulse  we  become  co¬ 
workers  with  God,  co-partakers  with  Christ,  and  co-witnesses  with  the 
Holy  Spirit,  i.e.,  we  are  co-laborers  with  the  triune  God.  It  is  this 
which  dignifies  our  service  as  witnesses  and  missionaries,  and  secures 
for  our  efforts  the  divine  approval  and  blessing. 

In  the  nature  of  the  case,  therefore,  the  work  of  missions,  which  is  the 
witnessing  of  a  saved  church — of  saved  members — must  rest  upon  a 
moral  basis. 

Where  shall  we  look  for  this  moral  basis,  and  what  is  to  especially 
distinguish  it?  To  this  question  I  reply — 

I.  We  are  to  seek  for  the  moral  basis  of  missions  in  the  benevolent 
nature  of  God. 

John  defines  God  as  love — “God  is  love.”  Hence  “God  so  loved  the 
world  that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son  that  whosoever  believeth  on 
him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting  life.” 

In  this  limitless  love  yearning  over  a  perishing  race,  manifesting  its 
inexpressible  tenderness  by  the  gift  of  the  only  begotten  Son,  as  the  open 


34 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


door  to  everlasting  life  to  all  who  would  enter  in  by  Him.  God  laid  the 
basis  for  all  work  with  Him — or  for  Him.  Without  such  a  basic  motive 
and  divine  impulse,  which  transforms  duty  into  an  exalted  privilege,  our 
work,  if  not  impossible,  would  be  the  veriest  slavery. 

The  work  of  missions  therefore  rests  upon  a  moral  basis  broad  as  the 
incarnation. 

II.  The  moral  basis  of  missions  is  to  be  sought  for  in  the  active  minis¬ 
try  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

His  work  and  his  Father’s  were  one  and  the  same  work.  He  came  “to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,”  and  in  doing  this  to  “glorify  His 
Father.”  The  church  of  Christ  must  never  lose  sight  in  her  missionary 
work  that  out  of  Christ,  men  are  lost.  She  must  fully  recognize,  as  did 
Christ,  that  men  are  lost.  As  we  lose  sight  of  this,  as  we  substitute 
other  means,  or  other  names,  than  that  of  Christ,  as  satisfactory  condi¬ 
tions  and  terms  of  salvation,  we  depart  from  the  line  marked  out  for  us 
by  him  who  hath  brought  life  and  immortality  to  light  through  the 
gospel. 

Because  man  is  lost — hopelessly  lost — unless  God  interferes  on  his  be¬ 
half,  the  incarnation  was  a  necessity.  This  plain  fact  of  the  gospel — the 
peril  of  man  out  of  Christ  must  not  be  lessened,  awful  as  it  is — for  the 
incarnation  and  death  of  Jesus  Christ  give  to  this  dreadful  truth  an 
emphasis  that  must  not  be  trifled  with. 

While  Christ  is  the  only  name  under  heaven,  given  among  men 
whereby  we  must  be  saved,  the  hope  of  salvation  in  any  other  name  or 
by  any  other  means  is  a  delusion.  “He  came  that  we ‘might  have  life.” 

Love  descends  and  seeks  to  lift  up.  Jesus  was  in  heaven  before  he 
came  to  earth.  He  came  down  to  us  that  he  might  bring  us — lift  us  up 
to  God.  Jesus  the  message  of  the  infinite  love  of  God  to  the  world,  com¬ 
ing  down  to  us,  and  becoming  Obedient  unto  death,  even  the  death  of  the 
cross.  What  an  appeal  to  a  church  possessed  with  this  same  love!  to  a 
church  that  loves  men,  because  God  loves  men  and  because  she  loves 
God. 

What  a  basis  we  have  in  all  this  for  Christian  service,  and  for  the  joy 
that  glorifies  that  service  that  seeks  the  lost  that  they  may  be  brought 
back  to  their  home  and  to  their  Father!  It  was  this  awful  thought  that 
men,  out  of  Christ,  are  lost,  and  hence  must  be  brought  to  Christ,  if 
saved,  that  roused  the  great  Judson  from  his  skepticism — when  a  youth — 
and  no  doubt  gave  its  force  to  the  reasons  that  made  him  the  missionary 
he  became.  It  was  this  peril  of  the  lost,  for  whose  rescue  the  only  be¬ 
gotten  Son  of  God  came  to  earth,  that  roused  Carey  and  led  Paul  to  con¬ 
secrate  themselves  to  the  missionary  work  of  the  church.  God’s  love  for 
a  lost  world,  illustrated  and  enforced  as  it  is  in  the  earthly  ministry  of 
our  Lord,  is  the  Christian  motive  for  missions!  How  much  we  need  a 
revival,  to-day,  of  this  divine  passion  for  the  perishing,  deepened  by  the 
ministry  of  the  Holy  Spirit! 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


15 


How  much  the  churches  of  this  age  need  to  study  Jesus’  methods  of 
dealing  with  the  lost.  Compare  his  methods  with  ours;  His  spirit  with 
ours.  The  love  in  which  He  sought  the  lost  was  a  magnet  that  drew  the 
people  to  Him — is  ours?  Alas!  Let  us  not  be  deceived.  The  way  in 
which  we  seek  men  has  a  most  important  effect  upon  our  success  in  sav¬ 
ing  them. 

^  But,  great  as  this  motive  for  seeking  to  save  the  lost,  furnished  in  the 
peril  to  which  they  are  exposed,  may  be,  and  it  must  not  be  lightly  con¬ 
sidered.  Still  it  is  not  the  Supreme  Motive  for  missionary  endeavor. 
Our  sympathy  for  a  perishing  race  is  but  a  feeble,  flickering  sentiment 
compared  to  the  glory  of  God,  in  the  redemption  of  the  lost.  In  all 
Jesus’  active  ministry  the  end  sought  by  him  was  the  glory  of  God. 
“Glorify  thy  Son,  that  thy  Son  also  may  glorify  Thee.”  Thus  Christ 
prayed  for;  for  this  he  lived  and  toiled,  died  and  rose  again. 

Christ,  who  is  the  life  of  his  church,  is  also  the  motive  of  his  church. 
Nothing  must  supplant  him.  Love  for  him,  faith  in  him,  energized  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,  are  the  forces  of  all  success  in  the  endeavors  of  his  fol¬ 
lowers.  The  Spirit  of  Christ  is  therefore 

THE  SPIRIT  OP  MISSIONS. 

To  our  Lord’s  ministry  on  earth  we  must  look  for  the  illustration  of 
that  passion  for  souls  that  should  characterize  the  lives  of  those  who 
would  imitate  Him.  This  passion  for  souls  for  the  glory  of  God,  is  what 
the  church  needs  most  of  all  to-day.  This  passion  will  deepen  and 
intensify  our  consecration  and  possess  us  with  the  proper  realization  of 
our  personal  stewardship  as  nothing  else  can.  This  passion  must  have 
its  roots  in  spiritual  life,  and  our  spiritual  life  must  measure  our  spirit¬ 
ual  power.  If  after  all  the  disciples  had  heard  and  seen  of  Jesus  in  their 
three  years  of  daily,  intimate  intercourse,  it  was  necessary  that'  they 
should  wait  for  a  spiritual  equipment  to  fit  them  for  missionary  work, 
how  much  more  do  we  need  such  a  preparation  for  this  work! 

Christ’s  words  are  surely  appropriate  to  us — “Tarry  until  ye  be 
endowed  with  power.”  Do  we  tarry  thus?  On  such  waiting  depends  the 
tongue  of  fire,  and  the  heart  of  flame.  Enthusiasm  is  no  substitute  for 
the  divine  endowment.  We  must  advance  on  our  knees,  if  our  going  is 
clothed  in  the  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit.  It  was  this  passion  for  souls 
kindled  by  the  Holy  Spirit  that  dictated  the  epitaph  of  Cox,  in  Africa, 
“Let  a  hundred  missionaries  die  before  Africa  is  given  up.”  It  was  this 
passion  for  God’s  glory  in  the  salvation  of  souls  that  laid  Carey’s  life  as 
a  living  sacrifice  upon  the  altar  of  Foreign  Missions. 

This  passion  for  God’s  glory  in  the  salvation  of  the  lost,  will  find  ex¬ 
pression  in  a  personal  effort  to  seek  and  save  souls  in  proportion  to  the 
intensity  of  this  desire. 

This  work  of  Christ’s — “to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost,” — is  your  work 
and  mine.  “For  his  sake,”  this  spheres  all  motives  of  Christian  effort, 
after  all. 


16 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


On  one  occasion,  when  Andrew  Fuller  was  seeking  the  means  to  aid 
Carey  and  his  companions  in  the  foreign  field,  his  solicitation  was  an¬ 
swered  by  an  acquaintance:  “Well,  Andrew,  seeing  it  is  you  I  will  give 
you  five  pounds.”  Puller  replied,  “If  it  is  for  my  sake  that  you  give  I  will 
not  accept  your  gift.”  His  friend  saw  his  mistake,  and  quickly  replied, 
“Well,  seeing  it  is  for  Christ's  sake  I  will  give  you  twenty-five  pounds.” 

Christ  must  be  our  motive  and  pattern  in  missions  as  in  all  our  service 
for  him. 

III.  The  moral  basis  for  missions  is  to  be  sought  for  in  our  Lord’s 
commission  to  his  disciples. 

“All  power  (authority)  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in  earth,  go  ye 
therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  *  *  *  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even 
unto  the  end  of  the  world.” 

These  were  the  words  of  him  who  had  only  forty  days  before  come 
forth  from  the  grave,  whence  he  had  been  borne  from  a  cross  of  suffer¬ 
ing  and  shame.  His  death  and  resurrection  had  given  him  them  astery 
of  heaven  and  of  earth,  and  upon  this  supreme  authority  he  rested  his 
commission  to  his  redeemed  church. 

And  who  were  this  church?  Unknown  men,  called  from  the  fishing 
boats  of  Galilee,  and  the  custom  house  of  Capernaum.  Some  of  whom 
had  denied  him.  All  of  whom  had  forsaken  him  at  his  death,  and 
doubted  the  truth  of  his  resurrection.  To  men  such  as  these  he  commit¬ 
ted  the  work  of  a  world’s  evangelization!  To  them  he  embodied  his 
marching  orders  in  his  last  commission.  In  that  commission  the  revel¬ 
ation  and  person  of  himself  was  made  the  foundation  and  center  of  Chris¬ 
tian  teaching — the  spirit  of  obedience  is  made  the  spirit  of  his  disciples. 
Christ’s  church  is  made  the  witness  and  minister  of  his  gospel;  that  com¬ 
mission  recognizes  the  omnipotence  of  Christ  as  the  reason  why  his  fol¬ 
lowers  should  evangelize  and  baptize,  and  it  also  makes  Christ’s  omni¬ 
presence  (Lo,  I  am  with  you,  etc.)  the  hope  of  his  people  in  the  work  to 
which  He  sends  them.  So  that  Christ’s  commission  spheres  not  only 
the  logic  but  also  the  motive  of  missions.  If,  therefore,  the  divine  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  church  be  missionary,  then  the  church  must  be  such  in  fact 
or  it  must  be  out  of  harmony  with  the  divine  purpose.  Every  word  of 
the  commission,  as  we  have  seen,  pulsates  with  the  energy  of  a  divine 
sovereignty;  in  it  he  opened  up  the  divine  purpose  and  issues  of  our 
Lord’s  death.  Upon  the  omnipotence  of  Christ  (“All  authority  is  given 
unto  me,”)  he  places  the  ^ ^therefore"  of  his  commission,  and  the  duty  of 
his  church  (“go  ye  therefore  and  make  disciples”). 

Hence,  because  missions  are  the  purpose  of  Christ,  missions  are  the 
business  of  the  church.  Shall  we  set  over  against  this  magnificent  aim 
of  the  Christ,  the  inadequacy  of  the  church’s  means,  which  after  all  is 
the  confessed  exponent  of  the  incompleteness  of  her  consecration?  Do 
we  not  know  that  what  the  church  gives  of  her  means  and  of  her  mem¬ 
bers  for  missions  is  no  measure  of  her  ability  to  give,  but  rather  the 
confession  of  her  unwillingness  to  give?  He  who  could  out  of  a  lad’s 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


17 


lunch,  of  five  biscuits  and  two  herring,  spread  a  banquet  for  more  than 
five  thousand  in  the  wilderness,  can  and  does  multiply  our  offerings,  but 
not  because  our  offering  is  “five  loaves  and  two  little  fishes,”  but  because 
it  is  our  all. 

People  speak  glibly  and  smilingly  of  “giving  the  widow’s  mite”  (it  was 
“iwo  mites”).  They  should  remember,  however,  that  Jesus  honored  the 
widow’s  gift  not  because  it  was  a  “/ari/mip,”  but  because  it  was  “all  the 
living  she 'had.”  She  gave  as  our  Lord  himself  gave.  So  that  few  peo¬ 
ple  who  so  promptly  quote  the  widow’s  example  ever  complied  with  it. 
When  they  give  “all  their  living,”  then  they  will  have  as  little  to  say 
about  it  as  did  that  widow.  Until  then  they  should  be  ashamed  to  shield 
their  covetousness  behind  so  glaring  a  misrepresentation,  as  that  which 
they  made  of  the  act  so  warmly  approved  by  the  Master. 

Our  reason  for  going  forth  is  Jesus’  omnipotence,  or  hope  in  thus 
going  is  his  omnipresence.  Could  we  ask  for  more?  Here  then,  in  the 
Commission’s  mighty  motives  for  missions  may  be  found  the  moral  basis 
of  missions. 

Remember,  the  secret  of  the  church’s  power,  in  missions,  is  not  of  men 
or  of  money,  but  it  is  the  enthroned  Christ !  The  living,  waiting,  ex¬ 
pecting  Christ  is  his  church’s  inspiration  and  power.  Christ  in  his  me¬ 
diatorial  throne  is  the  power  behind  the  church  and-  hence  behind  the 
missionary,  and  His  presence  with  us  now,  as  co-worker  with  us,  guar¬ 
antees  to  us  his  coming  as  the  King  with  whom  we  shall  also  reign. 
For  “if  we  endure  we  shall  also  reign  with  Him.” 

Not  one  provision  of  that  divine  commission  has,  ever  been  repealed, 
and  it  will  not  be  until  Christ  comes  in  his  glory. 

In  that  marching  order  of  an  aggressive,  missionary  church,  lie,  en¬ 
folded,  revivals,  reformations,  and  revolutions,  as  do  the  miracles  of  life 
in  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  God.  That  commission  of  Christ  makes  the 
life  of  each  disciple  an  interpreter  to  the  world  of  the  meaning  and  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  cross.  Hence,  in  the  meaning  of  the  cross,  and  of  the  com¬ 
mission,  only  a  converted  church  can  be  a  missionary  church.  Propaga¬ 
ting  a  dead  orthodoxy,  a  lifeless  creed,  or  ecclesiastical  forms,  is  not  the 
evangelization  enforced  by  the  commission  and  by  the  cross.  That  is 
the  carrying  of  the  water  and  bread  of  life  to  the  ends  of  earth. 

The  commission  which  embodied  the  active  ministry  of  Christ  while 
on  earth,  was  illustrated  again  in  the  missionary  life  and  ministry  of 
Paul,  “the  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles.”  In  Paul’s  missionary  work  the  Holy 
Spirit  interpreted  to  the  churches  of  all  times  the  meaning  and  intent 
of  Christ’s  commission;  for  Paul’s  life  incarnated  in  itself  the  spirit  of 
that  message  of  Jesus  to  the  ages. 

If  the  need  in  missionary  work  to-day  is  not  less  money  or  fewer  men — 
and  we  do  need  more  of  both — what  shall  be  said  of  the  need  there  is 
that  the  church  of  Christ  should  have  a  truer,  broader,  fuller  conception 
of  the  moral  basis — of  the  divine  idea  of  missions?  What  is  more  needed 


18 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


in  our  missionary  efforts  than  that  our  churches  should  be  guided  by 
that  faith  that  will  lead  us  to  plan  our  work  first  and  foremost  from  the 
divine,  rather  than  from  the  financial  side  of  missions.  This  is  not 
mysticism.  Faith  in  God  precedes  our  faith  in  men.  The  Holy  Spirit 
is  before  the  ‘‘Almighty  dollar”  in  God’s  work. 

This  is  not  saying  that  the  work  of  missions  has  not  a  money  basis — 
it  has;  but  before  that  it  has  a  moral  basis.  Money  must  have  a  moral 
as  well  as  a  commercial  value  in  a  Christian’s  hand.  We  need  to  be 
careful  that  the  evangelizing  worth  of  a  dollar  is  not  determined,  in  our 
plans,  by  the  commercial  value  of  that  dollar.  All  the  gold  on  earth, 
multiplied  by  all  the  currency  that  is  based  upon  it,  could  not  convert 
the  meanest  bushman  of  South  Africa,  without  the  supplemental  influ¬ 
ence  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 

If  we  expect  God  to  work  with  us  we  must  see  to  it  that  we,  first  of 
all,  are  working  with  Him. 

When  Constantine  was  laying  out  Constantinople,  and  some  one  re¬ 
buked  him  for  the  extravagance  of  his  plans  his  reply  was,  “I  am  follow¬ 
ing  Him  who  is  leading  me.”  So  also  when  Napoleon  was  slashing  at 
the  map  before  him  outlining  his  Austrian  campaign  and  his  uncle 
criticised  his  daring  ambition,  Napoleon,  flinging  open  his  window  and 
pointing  to  the  noonday  sky,  replied,  “Sire,  do  you  see  that  star?”  “No,” 
said  the  uncle.  “Well,”  said  Napoleon,  “I  do,  and  I  shall  follow  it,  for 
that  is  the  star  of  my  destiny.”  So,  with  our  eyes  upon  the  cross,  let  us 
obey  our  Lord’s  commission  and  by  so  doing  demonstrate  our  right  to 
call  ourselves  His  disciples. 

We  must  recognize  this  Mastership  of  Jesus,  over  us,  before  we  can 
accept  his  commission  in  any  such  sense  as  it  should  be  accepted.  It  was 
this  acknowledged  mastership  of  the  Christ  that  made  the  Apostolic 
church  invincible.  This  must  inspire  and  nerve  the  modern  church  if  it 
rises  to  the  realization  of  the  magnificent  possibilities  of  the  work  of 
modern  missions. 

We  have  for  a  long  time  been  troubled  about  how  many  of  our  churches 
can  give  to  missions.  Is  that  the  question  before  us?  No,  no,  the  vital 
question  is,  how  can  they  hope  to  live  if  they  do  not  give  to  missions?  not 
grudgingly,  but  as  freely  as  they  have  received. 

Our  State  Boards  which  are  laboring  so  earnestly  to  bring  weak 
churches  up  to  a  self-support  must  not  stop  at  that,  for  this  is  only  a 
means  to  an  end.  The  church  of  Christ  must  be  a  self-propagating,  as 
well  as  a  self-supporting  church.  Christlieb  was  right  when  he  said 
that  missions  demand  of  the  church  a  three-fold  conversion.  (1.)  The 
conversion  of  the  heart  in  order  to  right  affections.  (2.)  The  conversion 
of  the  head  in  order  to  right  conceptions.  (3.)  The  conversion  of  the 
purse  in  order  to  make  ample  provisions.  We  all  know  that  it  is  death 
to  try  to  live  on  one’s  breath.  This  is  the  policy  of  a  self-contained 
church  or  a  selj^sh  Christian. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


19 


The  commission  therefore  places  every  disciple  of  Jesus  under  an  obli- 
g-ation  to  evang-elize,  as  solemn  as  if  they  held  in  their  hand  the  pardon 
of  a  condemned  prisoner  and  were  commanded  to  bear  it  to  him  before 
his  sentence  is  executed. 

In  the  darkness  of  that  hour,  that  precedes  the  day’s  dawn,  a  tourist 
stood  upon  Riffleburg,  that  rises  far  above  the  Valley  of  Zermat,  waiting- 
for  'the  coming-  of  the  morning-  upon  the  Alps.  At  length  above  the 
thick  night  that  filled  the  valley  like  an  ocean  of  blackness,  above  the 
sentinel  peaks  that  stood  cloaked  with  shadow,  and  silent  in  their  soli¬ 
tude,  the  coming  day  flung  out  the  grey  banners  of  her  advance.  Soon 
the  peaks,  putting  off  the  garments  of  the  night,  began  to  assume  the  royal 
robes  of  day.  And  as  the  gates  of  the  East  opened,  these  peaks,  catch¬ 
ing  upon  their  icey  sides,  as  upon  mirrors,  the  light  of  the  breaking 
morning,  began  to  be  transfigured  into  towers  of  gorgeous  splendor,  as 
they  rose  among  the  clouds,  which  were  changing  from  leaden  heaps 
into  piles  of  crimson  and  gold  that  grouped  themselves  about  those 
mountain  towers,  as  if  they  were  the  descending  thrones  of  the  four  and 
twenty  elders,  while 

“Jocund  day  stood  tip- toe 
On  the  misty  mountain  tops.” 

The  descending  light  fell  upon  the  gathered  darkness  of  the  valley  as 
it  rolled  down,  and  along  the  floor  of  the  valley  shattered  into  light  like 
the  rising  dust  beneath  the  chariot’s  wheels.  The  morning  had  come 
and  the  night  was  gone. 

So  we  stand  here,  this  centennial  morning,  upon  the  glorious  heights 
of  this  first  century  of  modern  missions!  watching  and  waiting  for  that 
blessed  hope,  the  appearing  of  our  God  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ;  and, 
from  this  centennial  mountain  top,  we  cry,  watchman,  what  of  the 
night?  And  the  answer  co^es  back  to  us  in  the  thick  darkness  of 
heathen  ignorance  and  superstition  and  in  the  chilly  shadows  of  vice 
that  hang  its  night  around  us.  Again  we  cry,  watchman,  what  of  the 
night?  And  in  the  dawn  that  hangs  its  splendors  about  the  cross  and 
the  future,  we  hear  the  answer,  “the  morning  cometh.”  We  wait, 
and  again,  with  uplifted  hope,  we  cry,  watchman,  what  of  the  night? 
And  we  are  thrilled  as  we  hear  the  answer,  “the  day  cometh.”  Yes,  as 
once  across  the  wave  lashed  Tiber  the  Christ  came  to  his  disciples, 
treading  the  surging  billows,  so,  across  the  centuries  He  comes  again. 
He  who  with  his  coming  shall  bring  the  blessed  day  promised  by  the 
prophets — the  day  for  which  his  redeemed  church  has  been  toiling, 
praying,  waiting,  and  hoping. 

Even  so,  come  Lord  Jesus,  come  quickly.  Amen, 


20 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


At  3  P.M.,  Sunday,  there  was  a  mass  meeting  addressed  by 
Rev.  R.  H.  Harris,  D.D.,  of  Columbus,  Ga.,  on 

Are  the  Heathen  “Lost  Without  the  Gospel?” 

Text:  “Re  that  hath  the  Son,  hath  life;  hut  he  that  hath  not  the  Son  of 
God,  hath  not  life.’’’' — I.  Jno.  5:12. 

If  words  have  any  meaning,  the  question  would  seem  to  be  answered, 
as  soon  as  asked.  Indeed,  it  is  strange  that,  with  the  open  Bible  before 
us,  there  should  be  any  such  question.  But,  that  there  is  such  a  ques¬ 
tion,  in  the  minds  of  many  excellent  people,  cannot  be  denied.  Perhaps 
not  a  very  great  many  entertain  a  decided  conviction,  in  the  negative:  but 
a  comparatively  large  number  of  persons  are  honestly  in  doubt — and,  with 
most  of  them,  so  far  as  effects  their  practical  conduct,  doubt  is  tantamount 
to  conviction. 

Of  people  whose  views  are  not  affirmative,  there  are  two  general 
classes:  1st.  Those  who  in  the  goodness  of  their  hearts,  would  fain  hope 
that,  in  some  mysterious  way,  unrevealed  to  us,  the  benighted  multitudes 
of  earth  may  be  saved,  notwithstanding  their  ignorance  of  the  Bible  plan 
of  salvation;  2d.  Those  who,  in  their  meanness  and  stinginess  of  heart, 
are  glad  to  favor  any  doctrine  that  will  excuse  them  from  the  conscious 
duty  of  contributing  money  to  the  Lord’s  work.  Kind-heartedness,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  covetousness  on  the  other,  are  the  tptally  dissimilar 
influences  which  produce  precisely  the  same  result  upon  moral  char¬ 
acters,  otherwise  entirely  unlike. 

Some  who  are  prejudiced  in  the  negative,  and  others  whose  minds  are 
merely  doubtful,  are  unwilling  to  hear  this  question  discussed,  apparently 
lest  their  convictions  may  be  disturbed  or  their  doubts  removed;  while 
others,  still,  already  know  more  upon  tlfis,  or  almost  any  other  sub¬ 
ject,  than  any  one  under  heaven  can  tell  them. — Prov.  xxvi:12,16.  So, 
among  them,  they  either  absent  themselves,  altogether,  on  occasions 
when  this  topic  is  to  be  discoursed  upon,  or  else  they  attend  with  self- 
blinded  eyes  and  stopped-up  ears,  determined  not  to  be  moved. 

But  the  spectre  “will  not  down  at  bidding”  and  a  real  issue  confronts  us 
that  must  be  met,  in  a  spirit  of  honest  inquiry  after  the  truth.  This  done, 
we  may  confidently  leave  the  result  to  God,  regardless  of  indifference  or 
opposition,  in  any  quarter. 

If  the  negative  be  true,  and  the  heathen  are  not  lost  without  the  gos¬ 
pel,  then,  the  greatest  calamity  that  we  could  inflict  upon  them  would 
be  to  send  them  the  news  of  salvation  in  Christ.  We  are  so  unfortunate 
as  to  have  heard  of  Jesus!  and,  while  some  of  us  will  be  saved  in  Him, 
most  of  us  are  destined  to  be  lost,  because  we  have  heard.  Now,  in  loving 
pity  toward  our  benighted  fellow-men,  let  us  conceal  this  fatal  news  from 
them.  And,  to  be  consistent,  let  us  do  more.  We  love  our  children,  and 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


21 


we  are  deeply  concerned  about  the  generations  yet  unborn.  Let  us  burn 
up  all  the  Bibles,  raze  the  church  buildings  to  the  ground  or  convert 
them  into  dance  halls  and  theatres,  extirpate  the  preachers,  bind  our¬ 
selves  by  inviolable  oaths  to  eternal  silence  upon  the  most  dangerous 
subject,  and  die  with  the  fatal  secret  locked  up  in  our  bosoms — that  our 
little  children  and  the  generations  yet  to  come  may  enjoy  equal  blessings 
with  heathen  murderers  and  cannibals,  and  all  be  saved  I 

Any  other  course  than  this  must  be  illogical  and  cruel,  if  the  advocates 
of  the  negative  doctrine  are  right  in  their  position.  Almost  as  cruel  as 
God  has  been,  in  subjecting  His  pure  and  innocent  Son  to  an  ignominious 
life  and  a  horrible  death,  to  insure  the  fiery  torments  of  an  eternal  hell, 
to  most  of  the  miserable  wretches  who  are  so  supremely  unfortunate  as 
to  hear  of  Him! 

But  private  opinions  upon  this  subject  are  entirely  immaterial,  unless 
sustained  by  reason  based  upon  the  Word  of  God.  The  real  and  great 
question  is:  What  saith  the  Lord?  The  Bible  should  be  our  only  guide. 
Its  teachings  must  be  accepted  and  its  commandments  obeyed,  whether 
we  understand  God’s  motives  and  purposes,  or  not. 

In  this  view,  let  us  consider  the  last  commandment  of  Christ:  “Go  ye, 
therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,”  Matt.  xxviii:19;  “Go  ye  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,”  Mark  xvi:15.  Why 
“therefore”?  Jesus  had  said:  “All  power  is  given  to  me  in  heaven  and 
in  earth,”  Matt.  xxviii:18 — I  have  breathed  my  spirit  into  you — I  have 
finished  my  work  in  my  fiesh,  and  I  am  going  home — but  I  have  com¬ 
mitted  the  full  accomplishment  of  that  work  to  you,  pledging  my  Divine 
power  to  sustain  you — now,  “therefore,”  do  it.  Why  “go”?  Because 
His  work  was  for  the  benefit  of  the  world — “God  so  loved  the  world,” 
Jno.  iii:16,  and  movement,  outward,  from  the  initial  centre,  was  neces¬ 
sary,  to  “teach”  “the  world”  of  mankind  “the  way”  of  life  that  had  been 
opened  up  for  those  who  should  walk  in  it.  “Go,  ye,”  all  ye,  who  have  my 
spirit  and  my  pledged  power,  for  ye  are  qualified,  “and  teach  all  na¬ 
tions” — not  merely  those  which  are  contiguous  to  Judea,  but  “into  all 
the  world,”  as  is  more  explicitly  stated  by  Mark.  “Ye  shall  be  witnesses 
unto  me,  both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judea  and  in  Samaria  and  unto 
the  uttermost  part  of  the  earth,”  Acts  i:8.  Mark  also  individualizes  this 
teaching.  The  messengers  of  Jesus  are  not  merely  to  plant  the  banner 
of  the  cross  on  every  nation’s  shore  and  “proclaim  the  gospel  of  the  king¬ 
dom,”  in  every  national  capital  in  “all  the  world,”  but  they  are  to  carry 
their  message  to  each  individual — as  expressed  in  the  language,  “every 
creature.” 

What  is  the  “gospel?”  Good  news.  The  term  is  compounded  of  two 
Anglo-Saxon  words — “god,”  good,  and  “spell,”  story  or  tidings.  Hence, 
the  Scripture  expression,  “glad  tidings  of  great  joy.”  What  is  the  best 
news  to  a  drowning  man?  That  a  rescuer  is  at  hand.  What  is  the  glad¬ 
dest  tidings  to  the  dying  patient?  Of  a  physician  who  can  and  will  heal. 


22 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBEATION 


Of  what,  is  the  “good  news,”  that  the  messengers  of  Jesus  are  to  carry 
to  “every  creature”?  Of  salvation.  Why  do  I  say  so?  “The  gospel  of 
Christ  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation,’’'  Rom.  i:16. 

This  “good  news”  is  of  salvation  to  whom?  To  the  lost.  “The  Son  of 
Man  is  come  to  save  that  which  was  lost,”  Matt.  xviii:ll.  “The  Son  of 
Man  is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost,”  Luke  xix:10.  “To 
seek,”  means  to  hunt  for.  Effort  is  necessary,  both  on  the  part  of  Jesus, 
Himself,  and  on  the  part  of  His  messengers.  Those  who  “have  His 
spirit”  must  “go”  forth  “into  all  the  nations  of  the  world,”  “seeking,”  in 
that  spirit,  for  the  individuals,  whom  God  hath  “predestinated  to  be 
conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son,”  Rom.  viii:29. 

Who  are  lost?  All  men.  “Death  passed  upon  all  men,  for  that  all  have 
sinned,”  Rom.  v:12;  “the  wages  of  sin  is  death,”  Rom.  vi:23;  “we  (Chris¬ 
tians),  were  by  nature  the  children  of  wrath,  even  as  others,”  (the  unre¬ 
generate,  or  heathens,)  Eph.  ii:3.  The  God  of  “foreknowledge  and  for- 
ordination,”  the  God  of  “predestination,”  has  declared  that  all  men, 
naturally,  “are  under  the  curse,”  Gal.  iii:10 — that  “by  the  offense  of 'one, 
judgment  hath  come  upon  all  men,  to  condemnation,”  Rom.  v.T8 — and 
that  His  people,  saved  from  among  the  lost,  are  “elect,  through  sancti¬ 
fication  of  the  Spirit,  unto  obedience  and  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus 
Christ,”  1  Pet.  i:2. 

Now,  who  are  the  heathen?  There  are  only  three  classes  of  animated 
creatures  known  to  us:  1,  Angels:  2,  Men:  3,  Beasts.  Under  the  term, 
beasts,  I  include,  for  this  occasion,  all  cretures,  from  the  highest  brute, 
to  the  lowest  form  of  animal  life.  Are  the  heathen  angels?  None  will 
assert  it.  Are  they  beasts?  Blood  analysis  will  settle  the  questian.  The 
red  corpuscles  in  human  blood,  every  scientific  physician  knows,  are  dif¬ 
ferent  from  thifee  in  the  blood  of  any  other  animal.  The  blood  disks  in 
all  animals  of  the  canine  family  are  similar,  and  so,  with  the  felines,  or 
members  of  the  cat  family,  and  so,  also,  with  all  other  genera,  of  the 
lower  orders;  but  none  of  these  Resemble  corresponding  disks  in  human 
blood — and  the  corpuscles  are  found  to  be  precisely  alike,  in  all  the  races 
of  mankind.  God  “hath  made  of  one  blood,  all  nations  of  men,  for  to 
dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth,”  Acts  xvii:26.  Not  that  all  are  white 
men— or  all  black  men — or  all  brown  or  red  men — but  that  all  are  men — 
homo,  human.  “All  flesh  is  not  the  same  flesh;  but  there  is  one  kind  of 
flesh  of  men,  another  flesh  of  beasts,  another  of  fishes  and  another  of 
birds,”  1  Cor.  xv:39.  Cannibalism  was  proved  upon  certain  dead  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Greeley  expedition,  by  the  presence,  in  their  stomachs,  of 
the  striped  tissue,  which  is  peculiar  to  human  muscle.  The  flesh  and 
blood  of  the  heathens  are  found  to  be  of  identically  the  same  kind,  as  ours. 
The  heathen,  therefore,  are  men. 

If  men,  the  heathen  are  lost,  in  common  with  other  men,  “for  there  is  no 
respect  of  persons,  with  God,”  Rom.  ii:ll,  and,  therefore,  Christ  “came 
to  seek  and  to  save  them,"  since  “there  is  no  difference,”  Rom.  iii:22. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


2S 

*  The  question  now  occurs,  will  any  men  be  saved?  In  the  light  of  Scrip¬ 
ture,  I  answer,  yes.  Who?  Let  the  Scriptures  answer:  “He  that  be- 
lieveth  and  is  baptized  shall  be  saved,”  Mark  xvi:16;  “Whosoever  shall 
call  upon  the  name  of 'the  Lord,  shall  be  saved,”  Rom.  x:13  — and  every 
intelligent  person  knows  that  the  word  “Lord,”  whenever  applied  to 
the  Deity,  in  the  Scriptures,  either  means  Christ,  directly,  or  includes 
the  idea  of  Christ,  with  God — ;  “For  God  gave  his  only  begotten  Son, 
that  whosoever  believeth  in  Him  should  not  perish,  but  have  everlasting 
life,”  Jno.  iii:16. 

Another  question  now  presents  itself:  Is  there  any  means  of  salvation, 
outside  of  Christ,  intimated  in  the  Bible?  The  Scriptures,  themselves, 
are  emphatic,  in  the  negative:  “Neither  is  there  salvation  in  any  other, 
for  there  is  none  other  name  under  heaven  given  among  men,  whereby 
we  must  be  saved,”  Acts  iv.T2 — the  language  is  most  positive,  “mttsi”; 
and  “he  that  believeth  not  shall  be  damned,”  Mark  xvi:16. 

If  there  were  any  other  means,  the  sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ  was  unnec¬ 
essary:  “For  if  righteousness  come  by  the  law  (works),  then  Christ  is 
dead  in  vain,”  Gal.  ii:21.  “For  by  grace  are  ye  saved,  through  faith,  and 
that  not  of  yourselves;  it  is  the  gift  of  God,  not  of  works,  lest  any 
man  should  boast,”  Eph.  ii:8,9.  Salvation  is  of  God,  through  the  gift  of 
grace,  by  faith  in  Christ,  also  His  gift,  and  all  this,  men  may  “despise,” 
to  their  own  damnation.  Rom.  ii.  4-6.  On  the  other  hand,  if  any, 
heathens  or  others,  can  be  saved  by  “honestly  doing  the  best  they 
know,”  they  will  “have  whereof  to  boast,”  and  will  have  a  right  to  march 
up  to  heaven’s  gates,  flying  the  banner  of  “good  works”  and  demand 
admittance! 

Then,  consider  what  a  reflection  such  a  doctrine  casts  upon  God’s 
business  capacity!  I  speak  of  Him,  most  reverently.  I^  declares  that 
He  has  exhausted  heaven’s  treasury,  plucked  the  pricmess  jewel  from 
His  own  heart,  and  with  “the  Brightness  of  His  own  glory,”  purchased 
human  salvation;  and  yet  millions  of  men  are  saved  by  their  own  efforts 
to  “do  the  best  they  can,  with  the  lights  before  them,”  and  buy  their  sal¬ 
vation  at  a  price  infinitely  cheaper  than  God  has  paid !  The  Omniscient  God 
has  actually  been  out-traded,  by  some  of  His  ignorant,  finite  creatures 
and  has  spent  His  All,  for  what  might  have  been,  by  Him,  and  by  others 
is,  bought  at  an  infinitely  lower  price!  Such  is  the  horrible  absurdity 
into  which  such  a  doctrine  leads. 

“But,”  asks  one,  “do  not  the  Scriptures  declare  that  ‘the  heathen  are 
a  law  unto  themselves’  and  that  ‘they  shall  be  beaten  with  few’stripes’  ”? 
Let  us  see.  “That  servant  which  knew  his  lord’s  will  and  prepared  not 
himself,  neither  did  according  to  his  will,  shall  be  beaten  with  many 
stripes.  But  he  that  knew  not,  and  did  commit  things  worthy  of  stripes, 
shall  be  beaten  with  few  stripes,”  Luke  xii:47,48.  There  appears,  here, 
to  be  “no  difference,”  so  far  as  the  fact  of  punishment  is  concerned, 
Neither  is  saved  from  punishment.  “For  there  is  no  respect  of  persons, 


24 


CENTEi^NlAL  CELEBRATION 


with  God.  For  as  many  as  have  sinned  without  law  shall  also  perish* 
without  law,  and  as  many  as  have  sinned  in  the  law  shall  be  judged  by 
the  law,”  *  *  *  “in  the  day  when  God  shall  judge  the  secrets  of  men^ 
by  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  my  gospel,”  Rom.  ii:ll,12,16.  Here,  again, 
it  is  manifest  that  “there  is  no  difference.”  Those  who  have  not  the 
law  “peris/i,”  whether  the  “stripes”  be  “many” or  “few,”  and  “the  secrets 
of  (all)  men  are  judged  (alike)  by  Jesus  Christ,  according  to  the  gospel.” 
The  heathen,  then,  who  are  “without  the  gospel,”  are  not  justified  by 
that  fact.  If,  as  in  the  suppositional  case,  parenthetically  introduced  by 
the  apostle,  “the  Gentiles — or  heathen — who  have  not  the  law,  (should) 
do,  by  nature,  the  things  contained  in  the  law,  they  (would  be)  a  law 
unto  themselves,  showing  the  work  of  the  law  written  in  their  hearts’’ 
and  being  “accused  or  excused  by  one  another,”  accordingly.  Or,  as 
more  accurately  interpreted:  “Whenever  the  heathen  do  *  *  *  they 
are  a  law  unto  themselves,  *  *  *  inasmuch  as  they  show,  etc.  ”  The 
idea  being,  according  to  one  of  our  foremost  scholars,  that  “the  heathen, 
in  every  discrimination  between  right  and  wrong,  show  consciousness  of 
moral  law  and  are,  therefore,  justly  condemned  for  not  keeping  the  law 
they  have.” 

But  the  hypothetical  case  alluded  to  is  impossible,  in  view  of  this 
emphatic  language,  by  the  same  inspired  apostle  who  wrote  the  other 
words:  “Because  the  carnal  mind  is  enmity  against  God;  for  it  is  not 
subject  to  the  law  of  God.  neither  indeed  can  be,”  Rom.  viii:7.  Where, 
in  all  history,  is  the  record  of  a  single  man,  who,  “by  nature  did  the 
things  contained  in  the  law?  ”  I  defy  the  ivorld  to  produce  one  example.  The 
purest  heathen  I  ever  heard  of — Socrates — died  a  suicide — a  deliberate 
self-murderer! 

I  think  the  passages  quoted  in  this  connection  do  teach  the  doctrine  of 
’‘‘‘degrees  of  pumshment,”  but  there  can  be  no  question  that  they  also 
emphasize  the  doctrine  that  all  who  cannot  pass  the  test  of  judgment  by 
the  gospel  of  Christ  will  be  certainly  and  impartially  punished. 

The  former  doctrine  just  alluded  to,  is  not  a  doctrine  of  grades.  I 
think  the  Scriptures  indicate  degrees  of  happiness  in  heaven,  as  well  as 
degrees  of  misery,  in  hell,  the  difference  in  experience  of  the  one  or  the 
other  depending  rather  on  capacity  than  position.  A  homely  figure  may 
illustrate  this  point.  A  row  of  vessels,  of  different  sizes,  are  placed 
upon  a  shelf — one  holding  ten  gallons,  one  five,  one  two  and  so  on,  down, 
through  quarts,  pints  and  gills,  to  one  that  can  hold  only  a  thimbleful. 
When  filled,  they  are  all/itZZ,  the  thimble  vessel  as  full  as  the  ten  gallon 
vessel — every  one  as  full  as  it  can  be  and  all  standing  on  the  same  level — 
or  grade — and  yet  the  largest  vessel  contains  many  times  more  than  the 
smallest.  The  difference  is  one  of  capacity,  altogether.  That  old  saint 
who  has  “spent  and  been  spent,”  in  the  service  of  God — for  the  dear 
Lord’s  sake — has  buried  all  her  loved  ones  and  now,  widowed  and  alone, 
is  dying  in  poverty,  upon  a  pallet  of  straw — starved  to  death  for  the  want 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


25 


of  both  food  add  friendship,  and  yet  who  has  been  devoted  and  faithful 
in  all  things,  will  possess  a  larger  capacity  for  happiness,  in  heaven, 
than  many  an  orderly  Christian  who  has  been  merely  ‘‘correct  in  his 
walk”  and  has  suffered  little  or  none,  for  Jesus’  sake.  Just  so,  capacities 
will  differ,  in  the  nether  world,  and,  thus,  there  may  be  a  difference  in 
the  number  oi  “stripes”;  but  there  can  be  “no  difference”  in  the  character 
of  the  penalty,  nor  in  the  'period  of  its  duration — if  the  Scriptures  are 
true. 

The  Bible  teaches  salvation  by  “repentance  and  faith.”  “In  those 
days,  came  John  the  Baptist,  preaching  in  the  wilderness  of  Judea  and 
saying.  Repent,  ye,  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand,”  Matt.  iii:l,2. 
“The  time  is  fulfilled  and  the  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand — repent,  ye, 
and  believe  the  gospel,”  Mark  i:15.  “Now,  God  commandeth  all  men, 
everywhere,  to  repent,”  Acts  xvii:30.  “Except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all 
perish,”  Luke  xiii:3.  “John  did  baptize  in  the  wilderness,  and  preach 
baptism  of  repentance,  for  the  remission  of  sins,”  Mark  i:4.  “Testify¬ 
ing,  both  to  the  Jews  and  also  to  the  Greeks^  repentance  toward  God  and 
faith  toward  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,”  Acts  xx:21.  (Now,  every  well- 
informed  person  knows  that  the  terms,  “Gentiles.”  “Greeks,”  etc.,  as 
used  by  New  Testament  writers,  in  contradistinction  to  “the  Jews,” 
mean  the  heathen.  For  example,  “The  gospel  of  Christ  is  the  power  of 
God,  unto  salvation,  to  every  one  that  believeth — to  the  Jew,  first,  and 
also,  to  the  Greek,”  Rom.  i:16.)  Then,  to  continue:  “Repent  and  be  bap¬ 
tized,  every  one  of  you,  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ,  for  the  remission  of 
sins,”  Acts  ii:38.  (And  many  different  nationalities  of  former  heathens 
had  just  before  this,  heard  and  heeded  the  same  exhortation,  from  all 
the  apostles.)  “Repent,  ye,  therefore,  and  be  converted,  that  your  sins 
may  be  blotted  out,”  Acts  iii:19.  “Thus  it  behooved  thatjirepentance  and 
remission  of  sins  should  be  preached  in  His  name,  among  all  nations,  be¬ 
ginning  at  Jerusalem,”  Luke  xxiv:47. 

Now,  it  cannot  justly  he  denied  that  the  same  “gospel  of  repentance  and 
faith”  was  ordained  to  be  proclaimed  to  all  people  alike — “beginning  at 
Jerusalem,”  obviously  because  it  was  necessary  to  commence,  somewhere, 
and  God,  in  His  absolute  sovereignty,  had  seen  fit  to  “elect”  the  Jews  as 
the  first  recipients  of  His  divine  message  of  salvation. 

Now,  “the  gospel  of  ignorance,  as  Dr.  Gibson  calls  it,  is  thus  combated 
and  disposed  of  by  the  Scriptures.  “For  therein  is  the  righteousness  of 
God  revealed,  from  faith  to  faith;  as  it  is  written.  The  just  shall  live  by 
faith.  For  the  wrath  of  God  is  revealed  from  heaven,  against  all  un¬ 
godliness  and  unrighteousness  of  men,  who  hold  the  truth  in  unright¬ 
eousness;  because  that  which  may  be  known  of  God  is  manifest  in  them — 
for  God  hath  showed  it  unto  them.  For  the  invisible  things  of  Him, 
from  the  creation  of  the  world,  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  by  the 
things  that  are  made,  even  His  eternal  power  and  Godhead;  so  that  they 
are  without  excuse.  Because  that,  when  they  knew  God,  they  glorified 


26 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


Him  not  *  *  *  and  changed  the  glory  of  the  incorruptible  God  into 
an  image  made  like  to  corruptible  man  and  to  birds  and  four-footed 
beasts  and  creeping  things.  Wherefore,  God  also  gave  them  up  to  un¬ 
cleanness  and,  even  as  they  did  not  like  to  retain  God  in  their  knowl¬ 
edge,  God  gave  them  over  to  a  reprobate  mind,”  Rom.  i:17-28.  “For  we 
have,  before,  proved,  both  Jews  and  Gentiles,  that  they  are  all  under  sin. 

*  *  *  There  is  none  that  seeketh  after  God  *  *  *  There  is  no  fear 
of  God  before  their  eyes.  *  *  *  Now  we  know  that  what  things  soever 
the  law  saith,  it  saith  to  them  who  are  under  the  law,  that  every  mouth 
may  be  stopped,  and  all  the  world  may  become  guilty  before  God.  There¬ 
fore,  by  the  deeds  of  the  law  shall  no  flesh  be  justified  in  His  sight. 

*  *  *  'pjjQ  rig-bteousness  of  God  is  by  faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  unto  all 
and  upon  all  that  believe—  for  there  is  no  difference — for  all  have  sinned  and 
come  short  of  the  glory  of  God,”  Rom.  iii:9-23.  “For,  with  the  heart, 
man  belie veth,  unto  righteousness,  and  with  the  mouth,  confession  is 
made  unto  salvation;  *  *  *  for  there  is  no  difference  between  the 
Jew  and  the  Greek.  *  *  *  So,  then,  faith  cometh  by  hearing  and 
hearing  by  the  Word  of  God,”  Rom.  x:  10-17.  ‘Tf  any  man  sin,  we  have 
an  advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ,  the  righteous;  and  He  is  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins — and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world,''’  1  Jno.  ii:l,2.  “Jesus  answered.  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto 
thee,  except  a  man  be  born  again,  he  cannot  see  the  kingdom  of  God. 

*  *  *  That  which  is  born  of  the  flesh,  is  flesh,  and  that  which  is  born 
of  the  Spirit,  is  spirit.  Marvel  not,  that  I  said  unto  thee.  Ye  must  be 
born  again,”  Jno.  iii:3-7.  “Whosoever  believeth  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ, 
is  born  of  God,”  1  Jno.  v:l.  “He  that  hath  the  Son,  hath  life;  and  he 
that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God,  hath  oiot  life,”  1  Jno.  v.T2.  “Beeause  He 
hath  appointed^a  day,  in  the  which;  He  will  judge  the  world,  in  right¬ 
eousness,  by  that  man  whom  He  hath  ordained;  whereof.  He  hath  given 
assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  Ho  hath  raised  Him  from  the  dead,” 
Acts  xvii:31. 

How  can  any  man  stand  before  this  tidal  wave  of  Scripture,  declaring 
with  all  the  emphasis  of  Divine  inspiration,  the  essentiality  to  salvation,  of 
repentance  and  faith  in  Christ,  and  the  necessity  of  a  “?^e^o  birth,'''  and  still 
maintain  that  the  heathen  are  saved  by  virtue  of  ignorance  f 

Some  of  us  have  been  challenged  to  prove  the  affirmative  of  the  propo¬ 
sition  before  us,  by  the  Bible.  I  have  given  you  the  Scriptures,  by 
which  Paul  declares  that  it  is  proved.  Now  no  man  can  safely  gainsay 
the  teaching  of  God’s  Word.  There  is  no  dearth  of  proof-texts.  The 
question,  with  me,  has  been  and  still  is.  How  little,  out  of  the  abundance, 
to  content  myself  with.  I  find  no  pleasure  in  contemplating  the  woeful 
condition  of  the  benighted  heathen;  but  I  must  accept  the  declarations 
of  God,  howsoever  saddening  to  my  soul. 

And  then,  heartsick  and  sorrowful,  in  the  midst  of  the  gloom,  I  turn 
and  scan  the  heavens,  for  a  ray  of  light.  Nor  do  I  look  in  vain.  “Arise! 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


27 


shine!  for  thy  light  is  come,  and  the  glory  of  the  Lord  is  risen  upon 
thee.  The  Gentiles  shall  come  to  thy  light  and  kings  to  the  brightness 
of  thy  rising.  Thy  sons  shall  come  from  far  and  thy  daughters  shall  be 
nursed  at  thy  side,”  Isa.  60:1,3,4.  Into  the  “gross  darkness,”  light  is 
streaming,  from  the  glorious  personality  of  the  promised  Messiah.  A 
Savior  who,  although  a  Jew,  felt  the  blood  of  Gentiles  coursing  through 
His  veins  and  in  His  Moabite  ancestress,  Ruth,  was  literally  akin  to  the 
heathen  world. 

In  Him,  an  adequate  redemption  is  provided  and  the  mortgage  of  Satan 
may  be  lifted.  An  arrangement  is  perfected  for  our  rescue  “out  of  the 
snare  of  the  devil,  who  are  taken  captive  by  him,  at  his  will,”  2  Tim. 
ii:26,  and  although  all  men  in  common  with  the  Apostle  Paul,  are  “car¬ 
nal  (and  by  nature)  sold  under  sin,”  Rom.  vii:14,  we  anticipate  freedom, 
in  the  assurance  of  Him  who  spoke  in  the  prophecy:  “The  Spirit  of  the 
Lord  God  is  upon  me,  because  che  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good 
tidings  unto  the  meek.  He  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken-hearted, 
to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  captives  and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them 
that  are  bound,”  Isa.  lxi:l. 

But  are  we  concerned  in  this  matter,  any  farther  than  in  our  own 
emancipation?  If  it  is  true  that  “we  are  workers  together  with  God,” 
2  Cor.  vi:l,  we  are.  The  heathen  are  lost.  There  is  no  way  “unto  the 
Father,  but  by  (Christ),”  Jno.  xiv:6.  “Without  faith  (in  Christ),  it  is 
impossible  to  please  (God),”  Heb.  xi:6.  “How  shall  they  (the  unregen¬ 
erate  of  the  world)  call  on  Him,  in  whom  they  have  not  believed?  and 

how  shall  they  believe  in  Him,  of  whom  they  have  not  heard?  and  how 

« 

shall  they  hear,  without  a  preacher?  and  how  shall  they  preach,  except 
they  be  sent?  *  *  *  So,  then,  faith  cometh  by  hearing  and  hearing 
by  the  Word  of  God,”  Rom.  x:14-17.  This  is  God’s  plan  of  redemption. 
If  we  have  the  Truth,  it  is  our  duty  “to  make  known  the  mystery  of  the 
gospel,’’  Eph..vi:19;  for,  “according  to  the  commandment  of  the  ever¬ 
lasting  God  (this  mystery,  Rom.  xvi:25,  must  be)  made  known  to  all  na¬ 
tions,  for  the  obedience  of  faith,''  Rom.  xvi:26.  The  parable  of  “The  Good 
Samaritan,”  Luke  x:27-37,  shows  us  who  is  our  neighbor  and  our  duty  to 
him.  According  to  that,  “I  am  debtor,  both  to  the  Greeks  and  to  the 
Barbarians — both  to  the  wise  and  to  the  unwise.  So  as  much  as  in  me 
is,  I”  (should  be)  “ready  to  preach  the  gospel  to  (those)  that  are  in 
(heathen)  Rome,  also,”  Rom.  i:14,15.  If  I  cannot  “po,”  I  must  ^^send." 
This  is  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  and  “if  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
he  is  none  of  His,"  Rom.  viii:9.  God  says  to  His  people,  “Ye  are  not  your 
own — for  ye  are  bought  with  a  price;  therefore,  glorify  God,  in  your 
body  and  in  your  spirit,  which  are  God’s,”  1  Cor.  vi:19,20.  “Whereunto, 
He  called  you,  by  our  gospel,  to  the  obtaining  of  the  glory  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,”  2  Thess,  ii:14.  The  question  of  our  fidelity  is  raised  in 
this  issue.  “Ye  are  my  friends,  if  ye  do  whatsoever  I  command  you,” 
Jno.  xv:14.  “If  ye  love  me,  keep  my  commandments,”  Jno.  xiv:15.  “If 


28 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


a  man  love  me,  he  will  keep  my  words,”  Jno.  xiv:23.  What  is  His  part¬ 
ing  commandment?  “Go,  ye,  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father  and  of  the  Son  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost,” 
Matt.  xxviii:19.  As  this  is  the  test  of  our  friendship,  so  it  is  the  condition, 
upon  which  is  based  the  assurance  of  His  continual  presence  with  us:  “And, 
lo!  I  am  with  you,  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.  Amen.”  Matt. 
xxviii:20.  “Go,  bring  my  sons  from  far,  and  my  daughters  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth.  Let  all  the  nations  be  gathered.  *  *  *  And  they 
shall  bring  all  your  brethren,  for  an  offering  unto  the  Lord,  out  of  all 
nations,''  Isa.  xliii:6-9.  “And  this  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be 
preached  in  all  the  world,  for  a  witness  unto  all  nations,”  Matt.  xxiv:14. 
“Thou  art  my  Son  *  *  *  and  I  shall  give  thee  the  heathen  for  thine 
inheritance  and  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth,  for  thy  possession,” 
Ps.  ii:7,8;  “The  kingdoms  of  this  world  (shall)  become  the  kingdoms  of 
our  Lord  and  of  His  Christ,”  Rev.  xi:15;  “For,  after  that,  in  the  wisdom 
of  God,  the  world,  by  (its)  wisdom,  knew  not  God,  it  pleased  God,  by  the 
foolishness  of  preaching,  to  save  them  that  believe,"  1  Cor.  i:21.  But  “how 
,  shall  (the  heathen)  hear  without  a  preacher?  and  how  shall  they  preach, 
except  they  be  sent?”  Rom.  x:14,15. 

We  have  been  listening  to  mingled  promises  and  warnings,  but  now 
the  warnings  deepen:  “Not  every  one  that  saith  unto  me.  Lord,  Lord, 
shall  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven;  but  he  that  doeth  the  will  of  my 
Father  which  is  in  heaven,”  Matt.  vii:21.  “For  whosoever  shall  do  the 
will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my  brother  and  sister,” 
Matt.  xii:50.  “Verily,  I  say  unto  you,  inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  not  (my  will) 
unto  one  of  the  least  (most  obscure)  of  these  (the  needy),  ye  did  it  not 
unto  me,”  Matt.  xxv:45.  “To  him  that  knoweth  to  do  good  and  doeth  it 
not,  to  him,  it  is  sin,”  .James  iv:17.  “If  the  watchman  see  the  sword 
come,  and  blow  not  the  trumpet  and  the  people  be  not  warned,  if  the 
sword  come  and  take  any  person  from  among  them,  he  is  taken  away  in 
his  iniquity — but  his  blood  will  be  required  at  the  watchman’s  hand. 
When  I  say  unto  the  wicked,  O  wicked  man,  thou  shalt  surely  die!  if 
thou  dost  not  speak,  to  warn  the  wicked  from  his  way,  that  wicked  man 
shall  die  in  his  iniquity —but  his  blood  will  I  require  at  thine  hand," 
Ezek.  xxxiii:6,8. 

The  heathen,  like  all  other  men,  by  nature,  are  -according  to  the 
Scriptures.  2'he  gospel  offers  the  only  means  of  salvation  provided  for  any 
man — according  to  the  Scriptures.  We  have  received  “the  unspeakable 
gift,”  2  Cor.  ix:15,  and  we  can  refuse  to  offer  its  provisions  to  our  be¬ 
nighted  neighbor,  only  at  our  own  pm7— according  to  the  Scriptures. 
What  should  we  do?  “This  gospel  of  the  kingdom  shall  be  preached  in 
all  the  world.”  If  we  will  not  carry  it,  or  send  it,  we  shall  be  removed  out 
of  the  way  and  others  will  accept  the  mission.  The  avalanche  is  coming 
and  if  we  oppose  it,  or  merely  stand  still,  in  the  way,  we  shall  be  swept  from 
the  face  of  the  earth  I  The  Lord  ’'will  work  and  who  shall  hinder  it?” 
Isa.  xliii:13. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


29 


But  the  doctrine  has  been  promulgated,  that  “the  commission  expired 
with  the  last  one  of  the  eleven  disciples  who  witnessed  the  Lord’s 
ascension!  ”  That  is  the  last  dodge  of  impotent  heterodoxy!  If  that  be  true, 
why  did  “the  eleven”  immediately  elect  Matthias  to  the  vacancy  left  by 
Judas?  and  that,  too,  under  the  express  command  of^Jesus  that  there 
“must  one  be  ordained  to  be  a  witness  with  (them)  of  His  resurrection,” 
Acts  i:22.  With  the  same  propriety,  could  it  be  claimed  that  the 
“Lord’s  Supper”  was  to  be  celebrated  only  by  “the  eleven” — “till  He 
come,”  1  Cor.  xi:26.  If  that  doctrine  be  true,  why  did  Paul  go  out  as  a 
*  missionary  to  the  heathen,  twenty  years  later?  Why,  too,  did  Barnabas 
and  Silas  and  others  engage  in  similar  undertakings?  Above  all,  why 
did  Jesus  promise  to  be  with  those  to  whom  the  commission  was  given, 
“alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world?  ”  Were  “the  eleven”  to  live  in 
the  world  until  the  end  of  it?  If  so,  where  are  they  yiow?  The  expression, 
literally  translated,  reads,  “through  all  the  days,”  etc.  Where  are  “the 
eleven,”  in  these  days?  Are  they  still  “going  everywhere,  preaching  the 
Word”  and  perpetuating  the  Supper,  “in  remembrance  of  (Him)?”  I 
denounce  the  heresy  and  I  am  gravely  suspicious  of  its  teachers. 

In  support  of  the  assumption  that  the  commission  expired  with  “the 
eleven,”  it  is  urged  that  “signs  were  to  follow”  their  preaching  (Mark 
xvi:l7,18),  and  as  such  “signs”  do  not  follow  the  converts  of  present  day 
missionaries,  that,  therefore,  they  are  not  Divinely  authorized  to  under¬ 
take  such  work.  .  As  well  might  it  be  claimed  that  all  those  who  have 
been  “preaching  the  Word,”  from  the  day  of  Timothy  down  to  the  pres¬ 
ent  time,  have  proceeded  without  the  Divine  warrant,  because,  forsooth, 
the  miraoifes  which  attended  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  whose  call  (Acts 
xiii;2),  they  profess  to  obey,  do  not  accompany  their  ministry.  Miracles 
were  deemed  necessary  to  attest  the  Divinity  of  Christ,  Jno.  iv:48,  and 
miracles  appear  also  to  have  been  deemed  necessary,  for  a  time  after  the 
Savior’s  death,  to  prove  to  gainsayers  that  His  Divine  power  was  not 
extinguished  in  the  sepulchre,  Acts  ii:43;  vi:8.  That  is  all.  The  Lord 
thus  rebukes  those  who  demand  supernatural  manifestations,  where  God 
does  not  see  proper  to  give  them,  of  His  own  accord:  “An  evil  and  adul¬ 
terous  generation  seeketh  after  a  sign  and  there  shall  no  sign  be  given,” 
Matt.  xii:39.  The  power  of  His  presence  was  promised  to  His  ministers, 
“through  all  the  days” — not  the  proof  of  that  power,  in  miracles. 

Some  endeavor  to  drag  the  question  of  infant  salvation  into  this  issue; 
but  it  is  no  more  involved  herein  than  is  the  question  of  church  disci¬ 
pline,  or  of  Lord’s  Day  observance.  Sufficient  reason  for  believing  that 
infants  are  saved  is  to  be  found  in  the  Scriptures — the  children  of  heathens, 
as  well  as  others — but  we  are  discussing  the  question,  as  it  affects  persons 
of  maturer  years.  And  this  is,  doubtless,  well  understood  by  those  cav- 
ilers  who  spring  the  other  question,  solely  to  complicate  the  case. 

Now,  upon  the  real  issue,  let  us  hear  the  testimony  of  Dr.  Graves,  whose 
residence  of  over  thirty  years  among  the  heathen  renders  valuable  his 


30 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


evidence,  upon  the  question  under  discussion.  “What,”  he  asks,  “is  the 
condition  of  the  heathen?  Where  will  you  find  the  men  ‘who  do  the 
best  they  know  how’?  Heathen  sages  deny  that  there  are  any  such  men. 
The  heathen  admit  that  their  sins  far  outweigh  their  morality.  If  men 
are  saved  on  account  of  their  morality,  the  whole  gospel  system  is  a  mis¬ 
take  and  we  are  saved  by  works,  and  not  by  grace.  While  God  has 
‘included  all  under  sin,’  He  has  also  provided  a  remedy  for  all.  Yet  its 
application  is  made  dependent  upon  human  agency.  The  Bible  clearly 
teaches  that  the  salvation  of  all  men  depends  on  their  ‘hearing’  and  ‘be¬ 
lieving’  the  gospel.  How  great  the  responsibility,  resting  upon  us!  ' 
What  is  the  doom  of  the  heathen?  Lost!  lost!  without  the  gospel. 
What  will  be  our  doom,  if  we  withhold  it  from  them”? 

Not  that  anything  “can  separate  from  the  love  of  God  in  Christ,” 
Rom.  viii:39.  God’s  “elect”  cannot  be  “plucked  out  of  His  hand.”  Jno. 
x;28,29.  But  the  question  is.  Are  those  who  close  their  eyes  against  the  plain 
teachings  of  the  Bible,  or  who  willfully  disobey  those  teachings,  when  under¬ 
stood,  of  the  elect,  at  all?  It  is  high  time  to  cease  palavering.  We  have 
heard  quite  enough  about  “our  good  brethren  who  do  not  agree  with  us 
upon  the  subject  of  missions.”  God’s  peoj)la  may  ignorantly  fall  short  of 
duty,  in  many  particulars,  but  “the  true  Israel  of  God”  will  not  persist  in 
willful  disobedience. 

In  opposition  to  foreign  missions,  it  has  been  falsely  said  that  it  costs 
ten  dollars  to  convey  ten  cents  to  the  heathen,  and  a  great  complaint  has 
been  made  against  “so  much  machinery,”  in  our  missionary  enterprises. 
Our  boards  correspond  to  directorates  in  railroads,  banks  and  other 
legitimate  enterprises,  our  secretaries  correspond  to  their  ^fecretaries, 
cashiers,  etc.,  and  no  large  business,  of  any  kind,  can  be  successfully 
conducted,  without  such  officials.  Our  officials  are  Christian  gentlemen. 
How  dare  any  man  charge  them  with  dishonesty,  or  a  misappropriation 
of  funds.  The  expense  of  the  “machinery”  is  comparatively  small  and  the 
difference  (in  our  favor)  in  value  between  domestic  currency  and  foreign 
exchange  is  sometimes  sufficient  to  pay  all  expenses  and  still  leave  a  premium 
to  be  added  to  the  original  contribution.  I  noticed  this  difference  in  money 
values,  particularly,  on  two  different  visits  to  Mexico,  six  or  seven  years 
apart.  On  one  of  those  visits,  I  found  that  a  United  States  dollar  was 
worth  one  dollar  twelve  a  half  cents  in  Mexican  money,  of  purer  silver. 
At  that  time,  you  might  have  rolled  your  missionary  dollar  toward 
Mexico  and  after  paying  all  commissions,  it  would  have  entered  the  coun¬ 
try  of  the  Montezumas,  worth  seven  or  eight  or,  possibly,  nine  cents 
more  than  it  was  when  it  left  your  hand  I  And  to-day,  as  I  am  reliably  in¬ 
formed,  the  premium  is  from  thirty-five  to  thirty-nine  per  cent.!  And  a 
similar  state  of  things  is  said  to  be  true,  with  referenco  to  some  other 
foreign  countries.  “What  hath  God  wrought,”  to  rebuke  gainsayers  and 
cavilers  I 

Even  if  the  false  allegation  referred  to  were  true,  it  would  furnish  no 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


31 


proof  that  the  heathen  are  not  lost,  without  the  gospel,  but  would  only- 
show  that  their  evangelization  is  more  difficult,  to  us,  than  we  have  found 
it  really  to  be.  And,  further,  even  if  it  should  cost  one-half  the  money 
contributed — or  three-fourths,  or  nine-tenths — to  make  the  remainder 
available,  in  sustaining  missionaries  and  providing  the  heathen  with  the 
printed  gospel,  it  would  he  money  well  spent.  Statistics  show  that  souls 
are  thus  saved— AND  who  can  estimate  the  value  of  a  human 
SOUL? 

Rev.  John  Newcomb,  missionary  for  twelve  years  among 
the  Telugns,  gave  some  interesting  facts  concerning  his  field. 
During  the  past  year,  three  thousand  converts  have  been 
baptized.  The  Christians  come,  for  the  most  part,  from  the 
lowest  caste,  who  are  dirty  and  down- trodden.  But  Chris¬ 
tianity  leads  to  cleanliness  and  honesty.  Bro.  Newcomb  has 
been  informed  that  so  far  during  the  great  famine  on  the 
Cumbum  field,  not  one  of  the  eight  thousand  converts  has 
gone  back  to  heathenism.  Out  of  the  depth  of  their  poverty 
they  made  a  present  of  fifty  rupees  to  Bro.  Newcomb  on  his 
departure  for  America. 


32 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


I 

SECOND  DAY. 


Monday  Morning,  October  3. 

At  9:30  o’clock  devotional  exercises  were  held,  The  sing¬ 
ing  was  under  the  leadership  of  Capt.  John  H.  Weller,  who 
selected  the  old*  hymns  and  sang  them  with  spirit.  Prayer 
was  made  by  Brethren  J.  S.  Coleman,  J.  Wm.  Jones,  John 
R.  Sampey,  W.  H.  Williams  and  Robert  Ryland. 

Rev.  W.  H.  Williams,  D.D.,  of  the  Central  Baptist,  being 
called  out  by  Dr.  Ryland,  made  a  speech  of  encouragement. 
He  reminded  us  that  modern  missions  in  England  began  in  a 
cobbler’s  shop,  and  in  America  beside  a  hay-stack.  We  ought 
to  draw  encouragement  from  the  promises  of  God  and  from 
the  privilege  of  prayer. 

Dr.  Tichenor,'  Secretary  of  the  Home  Board,  spoke  on 

THE  NEEDS  OF  THE  HOME  MISSION  BO|^RD. 

At  the  last  session  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  the  State 
Board  of  Louisiana  memorialized  it  with  reference  to  the  great  destitu¬ 
tion  in  that  State.  The  facts  contained  in  that  memorial  were  not  over¬ 
stated,  the  picture  was  not  overdrawn  and  the  conclusion  reached  was 
that  in  the  State  of  Louisiana,  with  only  about  one  million  of  people,  two 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  of  its  inhabitants  were  living  and  dying  with¬ 
out  the  gospel.  The  request  they  made  of  the  Convention  was  that  the 
Home  Mission  Board  should,  if  possible,  appropriate  to  the  State  of 
Louisiana,  during  the  coming  year,  not  less  than  Ten  Thousand  Dollars. 
This  would  have  been  a  small  sum  compared  to  its  needs.  Ten  Thousand 
Dollars  to  supply  the  spiritual  destitution  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thou¬ 
sand  souls — Ten  Dollars  for  each  two  hundred  and  fifty — One  Dollar  for 
each  twenty-five — four  cents  apiece  to  meet  their  spiritual  necessities. 
Surely,  the  most  economical  among  our  brethren  would  not  deem  this  an 
extravagant  supply. 

* 

No  opportunity  was  given  in  the  Convention  to  compare  the  needs  of 
Louisiana  with  those  of  any  other  part  of  our  territory.  Had  there 
Jpeen,  it  would  have  been  easy  to  show  that  Louisiana  was  not  the  most 
destitute  of  the  fields  of  the  Home  Mission  Board.  There  is  a  large 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


33 


scope  of  country  equally  as  needy,  and  some  parts  of  it  whose  spiritual 
necessities  far  exceed  those  of  that  State.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
the  destitution  of  Arkansas,  though  not  confined  to  one  particular  part 
of  the  State  as  it  is  in  Louisiana,  but  scattered  throughout  its  entire  do¬ 
main,  is  fully  equal  to  that  of  Louisiana. 

Then  the  German  population  in  Missouri,  located  along  the  valley  of 
the  great  Missouri  river,  stretching  from  St.  Louis  to  Kansas  City, 
nearly  eight  hundred  thousand  in  number,  among  whom  no  Baptist  or¬ 
ganization  is  at  work  except  the  Home  Mission  Board  of  the  Southern 
Baptist  Convention,  presents  to  us  a  destitution  far  greater  than  that  of 
Louisiana.  In  the  equitable  distribution  of  the  funds  committed  to  it  by 
the  churches,  the  Home  Mission  Board  has  been  able  to  furnish  to  this 
field  only  about  $4,000  per  annum.  $4,000  for  eight  hundred  thousand 
people — $4.00  for  every  eight  hundred — four  cents  for  every  eight — one- 
half  a  cent  a  piece  is  all  the  Board  has  been  able  to  give  to  relieve  the 
spiritual  wants  of  these  people. 

Then  look  at  the  Indian  Territory,  at  Oklahoma,  at  the  Pan  Handle 
of  Texas,  at  the  territory  bordering  on  the  Rio  Grande,  and  you  have  a 
field  of  destitution  a  thousand  miles  long  and  five  hundred  miles  wide, 
whose  spiritual  needs  are  surely  equal  if  not  greater  than  those  of 
Louisiana. 

Florida,  from  Jacksonville  to  Pensacola,  and  from  St.  Augustine  to 
Key  West,  is  almost  one  unbroken  field  for  missionary  effort. 

Cuba,  with  an  area  equal  to  the  State  of  Alabama,  and  with  a  popula¬ 
tion  fully  as  great,  is  occupied  by  us  only  in  and  near  its  great  capital 
city,  Havarfft.  The  whole  island  is  open  to  us,  and  several  of  its  princi¬ 
pal  cities  are  crying  to  us  for  help.  Cein  Puegos,  Santa  Clara,  Cardenas, 
Puerto  Principe  and  other  points  have  appealed  to  us  to  come  over  and 
help  them.  The  meager  resources  of  the  Board  have  scarcely  enabled 
it  to  sustain  the  mission  work  already  organized  in  that  island.  We  are 
spending  about  $6,000  per  annum  to  sustain  the  missionaries  among  the 
millions  that  look  to  us  for  help.  That  was  a  remarkable  providence 
which  seems  to  have  thrown  the  entire  work  of  spreading  the  gospel  in 
this  island  upon  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention.  Missions  had  been 
planted  in  Havana,  and  possibly  at  other  points,  by  other  denominations. 
The  Episcopalians  have  tried  to  evangelize  Cuba,  but  their  efforts  have 
proved  unsuccessful,  and  they  have  abandoned  the  field.  The  Presby¬ 
terians  followed  their  example  with  a  like  result.  The  Methodists  have 
accomplished  nothing.  After  the  planting  and  the  successful  beginning 
of  our  Baptiit  missions,  the  other  denominations  were  encouraged  to 
renew  their  efforts,  but  so  far  the  results  have  not  been  encouraging. 
God  seems  to  have  commited  to  our  Baptist  people  the  evangelization  of 
this  island.  The  marvelous  providences  by  which  He  has  opened  to  us 
these  doors  of  usefulness,  and  furnished  us  men  from  among  the  native 
population  to  carry  forward  this  great  workj  njust  strike  every  mind  as 


34 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


the  most  remarkable  indication  of  His  will  that  we,  to  say  the  least  of  it, 
shall  lead  all  others  in  the  overthrow  of  that  ecclesiastical  despotism 
which  for  centuries  has  held  in  its  chains  of  galling  bondage  the  souls 
and  bodies  of  men  and  women  living  upon  that  beautiful  island. 

That  other  remarkable  providence  by  which  God  centuries  ago  brought 
into  the  midst  of  this  fair  land  of  ours  and  associated  with  our  people, 
the  African  race  in  the  development  of  our  material  interest,  and  made 
many  of  them  domestics  at  our  firesides — that  bound  these  two  races  to¬ 
gether  in  bounds  of  mutual  sympathy  so  strong  that  it  required  the  over¬ 
throw  of  revolution,  and  the  thunderbolts  of  war  to  tear  them  asunder, 
points  out  our  duty  to  them  so  clearly  that  even  the  blind  must  see  it. 
The  history  of  the  wqrld  presents  no  picture  of  two  unequal  races  dwell¬ 
ing  together  as  master  and  slave  in  such  relations  of  kindliness  and 
strong  attachment,  the  one  to  the  other.  To  those  of  us  who  were  reared 
in  those  times  when  the  institution  of  slavery  existed,  there’s  many  a 
picture  evoked  by  memory  from  our  childhood  days,  bright  and  gorgeous 
in  its  hues,  and  yet  the  dark  faces  of  this  alien  race  are  found  in  every 
scene. 

They  watched  over  our  cradle  slumbers,  they  taught  us  the  first  steps 
of  childhood,  they  hushed  our  wayward  cries,  and  with  their  own 
peculiar  melodies  they  sung  us  to  our  rosy  rest  on  their  dusky  bosoms. 
They  watched  with  delighted  eyes  our  growing  manhood,  they  rejoiced 
at  our  marriage  festivities.  They  sat  during  the  long  dreary  night  at 
the  bedside  of  our  stricken  ones,  unwearied  in  their  watching,  they 
robed  the  precious  clay  for  its  long,  dreamless  sleep,  and  with  hearts 
touched  with  the  tenderest  emotions  and  deepest  sorrow  th^  followed  it 
to  the  spot  where  it  rests  until  the  resurrection  morn.  When  the  bloody 
strife  came,  and  our  homes  were  stripped  to  furnish  solders  for  the 
tented  field,  the  mistress  who  with  the  children  were  left  to  conduct  the 
affairs  of  the  great  plantation,  found  safety  and  plenty  as  the  result  of 
the  industry  of  slaves  and  the  black  man’s  fidelity  to  his  owner. 

Much  had  been  done  for  him  physically,  intellectually,  morally  and 
spiritually  during  the  days  of  his  bondage.  He  had  been  eldvated  from 
a  savage  of  the  lowest  type  up  to  the  dignity  of  a  man.  His  physical 
proportions  had  expanded  under  the  generous  treatment  of  his  owner, 
and  his  intelligence  and  morality  had  increased  by  contact  with  a 
higher  race.  He  had  been  welcomed  to  the  same  sanctuary,  to  the  same 
religious  services,  to  the  same  baptism  and  the  same  communion  table 
which  conveyed  their  holy  lessons  to  the  master  as  well  as  the  slave. 

But  since  he  has  become  a  freeman  and  is  invested  with  all  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  an  American  citizen,  since  after  the  days  of  his  tutelage 
at  our  fireside,  he  goes  out  into  the  larger  field  of  duty  to  prepare  him¬ 
self  for  the  higher  walks  and  greater  responsibitities  of  life,  new  oppor¬ 
tunities  of  helpfulness  to'  him  open  themselves  to  us. 

With  reference  to  this  race  we  may  truly  say  that  its  history  is  but 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


35 


beg’un.  That  providence  which  brought  so  many  thousands  of  them  to 
our  shores,  and  which  under  the  civilizing  influence  of  their  owners 
have  developed  them  up  to  their  present  position  of  manhood,  is  but  a 
prophecy  of  what  God  intends  to  do  with  them  in  the  great  scheme  of 
the  world’s  redemption.  How  He  designs  to  employ  them  in  the  accom¬ 
plishment  of  His  great  purpose,  is  one  of  the  inscrutable  mysteries  which 
no  human  wisdom  can  discern.  Whether  they  are  to  remain  forever  in 
this  land  living,  side  by  side,  with  the  white  people  that  inhabit  it,  or 
whether  at  some  future  day  they  are  to  be  transplanted  to  the  land  of 
their  forefathers,  it  is  not  in  our  power  to  determine.  Whether  the 
seven  millions  of  them  shall  send  out  missionaries  and  teachers  who  shall 
instruct  the  dark  tribes  of  Africa  and  win  them  to  the  Master,  or 
whether  this  whole  host  shall  under  his  guiding  hand  cross  the  ocean  to 
conquer  Africa  for  our  King,  we  cannot  foresee.  But  we  are  sure  He 
will  make  these  people  of  such  strange  history  no  unimportant  factor  in 
the  liberation  of  the  world  from  its  bondage  of  sin.  Since  their  freedom, 
such  have  been  our  own  necessities,  and  such  the  calls  of  our  own  people 
for  spiritual  aid,  that  we  have  been  able  to  do  but  little  for  them.  But 
the  time  has  come  when  we  must  address  ourselves  with  greater  earnest¬ 
ness  and  diligence  to  the  task  that  lies  before  us.  These  seven  millions 
of  people  ought  not,  and  if  we  do  our  duty  to  them  will  not,  be  left  to 
their  own  unaided  efforts  to  make  higher  attainments,  and  to  be  fitted  for 
the  mission  that  God  has  in  store  for  them.  AVe  must  stretch  forth  to 
them  a  helping  hand,  and  by  the  multiplied  means  which  God  has  placed 
in  our  power  improve  alike  their  physical,  mental,  moral  and  spiritual 
condition.  ♦ 

There  is  another  wide  field  which  may  justly  claim  our  attention. 
Draw  a  line  from  the  northwestern  corner  of  Alabama  southeast  to  Co¬ 
lumbus,  Ga.,  then  northeast  to  Washington  City,  then  northwest  to 
Wheeling,  then  southwest  to  the  point  of  beginning,  and  this  line 
will  enclose  an  area  of  country  notable  for  the  variety  and  vastness 
of  resources.  It  would  include  the  great  body  of  the  Appalachian 
coal  field.  Throughout  it  would  extend  from  one  end  to  the  other 
the  great  fields  of  iron  ore  of  the  continent.  Along  its  center  runs 
from  •  Pennsylvania  to  Alabama  that  great  lime-stone  valley  known 
in  its  northern  part  as  the  Valley  of  Virginia.  This  area  contains  every 
metal  and  mineral  known  to  human  science.  It  holds  a  sufficient 
supply  of  hard  woods  for  the  western  hemisphere.  Its  water  power 
is  capable  of  turning  ten  times  the  machinery  of  the  world.  On  its 
northwestern  side  lie  the  great  grain  fields  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
and  the  blue  grass  region  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  South  and 
east  of  it  is  the  great  cotton  belt  of  the  continent.  Its  seaports  are  Bal¬ 
timore,  Norfolk,  Wilmington,  Charleston  and  Savannah.  An  area  com¬ 
prising  such  vast  and  varied  resources  is  found  nowhere  else.  It  is  the^ 
gem  which  the  hand  of  Ornnipotence  has  laid  upon  the  bosom  of  the  con¬ 
tinent. 


36 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


This  vast  reg-ion  is  filled  with  our  Baptist  people — their  churches  are 
found  in  almost  every  valley — perhaps  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand 
of  our  denomination  live  within  it.  But  in  many  parts  of  it  their 
churches  are  small,  inactive,  undeveloped,  with  little  opportunity  for  in¬ 
tellectual  culture  —their  membership  having  no  high  ideals  of  Christian 
life,  and  no  teachers  fitted  to  stimulate  them  to  Christian  duty.  More 
than  three-fourths  of  all  the  professing  Christians  within  these  limits 
belong  to  our  denomination. 

A  change  is  coming  over  the  face  of  this  country.  Capital  is  being  at¬ 
tracted  by  its  magnificent  promises.  Railroads  are  penetrating  it  in 
every  direction.  Many  of  its  towns  and  cities  are  already  growing 
rapidly.  New  centers  of  manufacturing  and  commercial  interest  will  be 
established,  and  the  day  is  not  distant  when  there  will  be  such  develop¬ 
ment  of  its  wealth  as  will  astonish  the  world.  To  retain  the  hold  we 
have  upon  this  population  requires  immediate  and  active  exertion  upon 
our  part.  The  influences  that  are  giving  new  life  to  this  vast  country, 
bring  along  with  them  opinions  and  religious  thoughts  that  antagonize 
our  own,  and  unless  our  Baptist  churches  are  so  strenghtened  by  higher 
intellectual  and  spiritual  development  as  to  meet  these  influences,  they 
must  go  down  before  them,  and  this  richest  part  of  our  heritage  be  lost 
to  us  as  a  denomination,  possibly  forever. 

What  they  need,  in  many  places,  is  better  houses  of  worship,  better 
schools  for  the  training  of  their  children,  preachers  of  broader  views, 
men  of  wider  outlook  and  better  understanding  of  the  needs  of  their 
people.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  spent  among  its  population 
will  in  days  to  come  yield  ample  renumeration  even  for  so  large  an  ex¬ 
penditure.  This  mine  abounding  in  jewels  and  precious  gems  we  will 
surely  lose  if  we  much  longer  continue  our  neglect  of  its  riches  and  its 
future  value  to  our  country. 

Some  of  our  brethren  who  dwell  in  realms  etherial,  and  who  hardly 
ever  descend  from  their  lofty  heights  so  as  to  come  in  contact  with 
things  that  are  of  the  earth  earthy,  have  kindly  criticized  our  Board  for 
such  frequent  references  to  our  material  developments  and  the  coming 
prosperity  of  our  country.  They  have  never  seemed  to  learn  that 
material  development  is  the  basis  of  their  civilization.  Even  our 
churches,  the  most  spiritual  and  active  of  all,  we  have,  grow  up  amidst 
these  industries  that  fashion  these  materials  for  the  uses  of  man. 

Just  as  the  lily  rooting  itself  in  mud  and  slime  develops  the  life  which 
it  enfolds  into  leaves  of  emerald  beauty,  and  flowers  more  glorious  than 
the  vestments  of  Solomon,  so  our  churches  planted  in  the  midst  of  the 
most  active  development  of  material  interests,  bloom  with  the  beauty 
and  are  laden  with  the  fruitage  that  we  find  nowhere  else.  We  need  no 
better  illustration  of  this  than  can  be  found  in  your  own  State  of  Ken- 
i  tucky.  All  the  active  churches  that  support  the  great  enterprise  of  the 
denomination,  arc  to  be  found  in  your  lovely  bluegrass  country,  and  in 


* 


<$ 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS.  37 

other  parts  of  your  State  of  equal  fertility,  while  the  churches  of  your 
mountain  region,  where  no  such  development  is  found,  remain  for  the 
most  part  in  ignorance  and  inactivity  far*  below  the  demands  of  Chris¬ 
tian  duty. 

But  what  the  Home  Mission  Board  needs  for  its  work  to-day  is  but  a 
fragment  of  what  it  will  need  in  the  years  that  are  so  rapidly  coming 
upon  us.  The  history  of  this  country  of  ours  teems  with  marvelous 
facts,  and  none  among  them  are  more  striking  than  the  rapid  increase  of 
our  population,  and  the  more  rapid  increase  of  our  wealth. 

Little  more  than  two  centuries  have  passed  since  the  first  European 
colony  established  itself  upon  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  In  that  time 
this  country  has  not  only  equaled  in  the  riches  of  its  development  the 
power  and  glory  of  our  mother  country,  but  has  exceeded  in  riches  and 
power  the  Roman  Empire,  the  mightiest  that  ever  existed  upon  this 
foot-stool  of  God.  American  enterprise  in  these  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  has,  in  the  grandeuc  of  its  developments,  eclipsed  all  that  Rome 
did  in  the  seven  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  her  dominance  over  the 
nations. 

The  present  census  shows  that  the  population  of  the  United  States  is 
little  short  of  sixty-five  millions.  Within  the  last  decade  fifteen  millions 
have  been  added  to  the  number  of  its  inhabitants.  Statisticians  tell  us 
that  during  the  next  decade  the  average  increase  will  not  be  less  than 
two  millions  per  annum,  or  twenty  millions  during  ten  years.  The  year 
1900  will  find  the  soil  of  America  sustaining  not  less  than  eighty-five 
millions  souls. 

Our  increase  of  wealth  has  been  even  more  marvelous  than  our  in¬ 
crease  of  population.  In  1880,  the  wealth  of  the  United  States  had  be¬ 
come  equal  to  that  of  Great  Britain,  about  $44,000,000,000,  measuring  the 
value  of  the  property  owned  by  each  of  these  two  countries.  The  census 
of  1890  shows  that  during  the  last  decade  the  increase  of  the  wealth  of 
the  United  States  has  been  $20,000,000,000,  more  than  forty  per  cent^ 
upon  the  amount  which  had  been  accumulated  from  the  settlement  of  the 
country  to  the  year  1880. 

A  nation  with  such  illimitable  resources,  and  such  augmentation  of  its 
powers,  both  in  numbers  and  its  industrial  resources,  becomes  the  most 
striking  figure  among  the  peoples  of  the  globe.  Its  influence  upon  the 
destiny  of  the  world  is  simply  incalculable. 

If  the  present  ratio  of  the  increase  of  the  population  shall  continue,  in 
thirty  years,  from  1890,  there  will  be  found  within  our  territory  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  twenty-five  millions  of  people.  These  people  are  to  be  cared 
for — their  religious  wants  must  be  supplied.  The  twenty  millions  com¬ 
ing  within  the  next  decade  will  demand  the  multiplication  of  our 
churches,  the  increase  of  the  number  of  our  houses  of  worship  and  the 
enlargement  of  the  facilities  that  look  to  the  supply  of  our  spiritual 
needs.  The  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  millions  that  in  less  than  the 


38 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


life  time  of  a  single  generation  will  come  to  crowd  our  shores,  will  re¬ 
quire  for  their  spiritual  enlightenment  and  religious  training,  an  in¬ 
creased  activity  and  a  liberality  such  as  our  people  have  never  known. 
With  this  increase  of  population  comes  the  greater  increase  of  those 
appliances  which  multiply  the  products  of  human  labor,  and  augment 
the  wealth  of  our  land. 

Let  us  dwell  for  a  moment  upon  these  striking  facts.  It  is  evident  to 
any  one  who  thinks,  that  the  average  worker  of  to-day  is  capable  of 
accomplishing  far  more  than  the  average  worker  of  thirty  years  ago. 
Such  have  been  the  marvelous  inventions  of  the  age,  and  so  rapidly  have 
labor-saving  machines  been  multiplied,  that  it  is  short  of  the  truth  to 
say  that  the  worker  of  to-day  can  do  twice  as  much  work  as  the  same 
man  could  have  accomplished  thirty  years  ago.  If  the  same  ratio  of  in¬ 
crease  of  these  appliances  shall  continue  for  the  next  thirty  years,  what 
a  startling  fact  stares  us  in  the  face. 

With  our  population  doubled  so  as  to  equal  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  millions,  and  our  machinery  so  increased  as  to  double  the  product  of 
human  industry,  we  will  have  a  nation  capable  of  producing  four  times 
the  present  product  of  our  country.  The  amount  of  surplus  thousands 
created,  over  and  above  the  wants  of  our  people,  must  produce  the 
grandest  commerce  the  world  ever  saw.  Discarding  all  that  we  now 
send  abroad,  if  the  consumption  per  capita  of  our  people  should  remain 
the  same,  we  will  then  have  a  surplus  arising  from  the  industries  of  the 
land  equal  to  twice  our  present  production.  If  the  consumption  per  capita 
should  be  increased  fifty  per  cent.,  there  will  then  remain  an  amount 
which  must  be  sent  abroad,  or  perish  on  our  hands,  equal  to  the  whole  of 
the  present  products  of  the  industries  of  our  country. 

Imagine,  if  we  can,  how  many  and  how  great  must  be  the  leviathans 
of  the  type  needed  to  transfer  across  the  ocean  to  other  lands  so  vast  an 
amount.  Compared  with  them,  all  the  fleets  that  ever  swept  the  seas 
from  the  day  that  Tyre  from  her  island  home  sent  her  ships  through 
Gibraltar  into  the  wide  Atlantic,  down  to  the  present  hour,  will  be  in¬ 
significant. 

The  question  will  arise  in  thoughtful  minds,  where  will  such  a  vast 
commerce  find  a  market?  Not  in  Western  Europe,  for  their  civilization 
and  their  products  are  alike  our  own.  As  two  merchants,  or  two  far¬ 
mers,  or  two  blacksmiths  trade  little  with  each  other,  so  two  nations  of 
similar  civilization  create  little  commerce.  It  is  among  the  nations 
whose  products  are  unlike  our  own  that  this  market  must  be  found. 
Some  of  these  products  will  go  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  two  hundred 
millions  of  Africa,  some  of  them  will  go  to  the  islands  of  the  sea,  some 
to  Mexico,  some  to  South  America.  But  after  all,  the  great  bulk  of  our 
exports  must  find  a  market  among  the  five  hundred  millions  of  people 
who  trade  down  to  the  Pacific  on  the  other  side.  Such  will  be  the  need 
of  increasing  in  their  land  the  consumption  of  the  products  of  our  own, 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


39 


that  their  rivers  must  be  opened,  and  their  highways  must  be  lengthened 
until  access  can  be  had  to  the  habitation  of  the  man  who  lives  furthest 
from  us  on*the  face  of  this  great  globe.  This  commerce,  bounded  by  no 
zone,  and  restrained  by  no  obstacle,  surmounting  every  natural  difficulty 
and  overriding  every  political  restriction  will  encompass  the  globe. 

This  commerce  will  bear  with  it  the  moral  impress  of  our  people.  It 
will  be  charged  with  the  vices  of  our  corrupt  civilization,  or  it  will  be 
perrneated  by  the  influence  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  According  as  it 
shall  be,  either  the  one  or  the  other,  will  it  prove  either  a  savor  of  life 
unto  life,  or  of  death  unto  death  to  the  nations.  The  outlook  is  over¬ 
whelming.  Thirty  years  and  these  things  shall  be — thirty  years,  and 
the  destiny  of  the  world  will  be  in  the  hands  of  the  American  people — 
thirty  years,  and  our  commerce  will  be  the  vehicle  which  conveys  light, 
life  and  salvation  to  the  nations  or  on  the  hands  of  those  who  absorbed 
in  greed  and  gain,  will  prove  the  vampires  of  the  world  that  satiating 
their  desires  with  blood  of  our  humanity.  We  stand  appalled  before 
such  a  picture — we  tremble  at  the  responsibility  which  these  years  will 
bring  to  our  country  and  our  children.  We  cover, our  faces  to  hide  from 
us,  if  we  may,  the  dreadful  responsibility  that  falls  upon  us.  Thirty  years, 
and  these  things  shall  be.  The  men  who  are  to  be  the  actors  in  this  last 
great  drama  of  the  world,  are  the  children  who  now  sleep  in  their  cra¬ 
dles,  and  the  boys  that  gather  at  our  firesides.  The  moulding  influences 
that  for  the  next  ten  years  shall  go  out  from  our  churches,  our  Sunday- 
schools  and  our  homes  will  decide  the  question  whether  this  great  giant 
of  our  country,  whose  shadow  looms  through  the  mist  of  coming  years 
shall  prove  an  angel  of  light,  scattering  peace  and 'joy  to  the  ends  of  the 
world  as  the  harbinger  of  our  coming  King,  or  whether  he  shall  prove  a 
demon  whose  accursed  thirst  for  gold  shall  bind  the  nations  in  bonds, 
such  as  never  before  fettered  our  humanity,  and  gorge  himself  with  the 
blood  of  the  slain  and  the  spoils  of  the  captives. 

Such  a  view  of  the  coming  future  appeals  to  every  heart  with  un¬ 
wonted  power.  Let  our  churches  awake — let  every  child  of  God  bestir 
himself  to  so  mould  the  Christian  character  of  our  people  that  this  last 
grand  empire  of  the  globe  shall  be  the  messenger  that  bears  to  the  na¬ 
tions  the  tidings  of  redemption,  and  the  herald  that  shall  announce  “the 
kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand.” 

Dr.  J.  W.  Warder,  Secretary  of  Missions  in  Kentucky, 
spo'Ae,  saying  that  he  hoped  that  the  stirring  address  of  Dr. 
Tichenor  would  increase  our  contributions. 


40 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBEATION 


W.  Pope  Yeaman,  S.  T.  D.  of  Missouri,  discussed 

AMERICA  AS  A  FACTOR  IN  MISSION  WOFJK. 

(An  ex  tempore  address,  reproduced  by  request  of  the  Committee.) 

Mr.  Chairman: 

It  has  been  a  question  with  me  how  to  compress  the  discussion  of  this 
vast  field  of  thought  within  the  limits  authoritatively  prescribed.  But  my 
distinguished  friend,  Dr.  Tichenor,  has  relieved  me  of  this  perplexity 
by  coming  over  on  the  ground  surveyed  and  bounded  to  me,  and  work¬ 
ing  it  with  his  silver-coated  and  gold-mounted  plow.  I  shall,  therefore, 
confine  myself  to  such  corners  as  could  not  be  reached  by  his  powerful 
traction  engine. 

America  as  a  Factor  in  Mission  Work!  What  are  we  to  understand 
by  America?  Do  we  mean  the  Western  half  of  the  globe?  If  so,  we 
may  stand  appalled  by  the  immensity  of  the  field.  A  vast  bi-continent 
territory;  a  multitudinous  population  of  diversity  of  tongues  and  uncon¬ 
genial  social  institutions.  So  we  mean  the  North  American  Continent? 
Then  we  may  well  cry:  Who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?  We  look  to 
the  Canadas,  and  behold!  A  mixed  population  with  every  shade  of  be¬ 
lief  and  unbelief.  Do  we  turn  our  eyes  to  the  Republic  of  Mexico? 
There  we  see  crystalized  ignorance  and  traditional  religious  corruption. 
Shall  we  journey  to  our  own  Alaska  to  encounter  avarice,  savagery,  and 
brutish  humanity?  What  a  field  these  outlying  wastes  for  sacrificing 
missionary  enterprise.  But  are  we  to  limit  our  observations  to  the 
States  and  Territories,  of  this  great  North  American  Republic?  This 
seem  quite  a  limitation,  yet  how  limitless  the  field!  What  opportuni¬ 
ties;  what  obstacles!  What  prosperity;  what  hindrances!  What  fear¬ 
ful  obligations,  what  indifference! 

But  shall  we  of  these  United  States  call  ourselves  America?  Are 
we  Americans  more  than  the  Canadians  ?  Have  not  the  de¬ 
scendants  of  the  Aztecs  and  the  surviving  posterity  of  the  Aborigi¬ 
nal  Indian  better  title  to  the  designation  American  than  have  we, 
the  offspring  of  staid  Puritans  and  chivalric  cavalier?  The  United 
States — a  social,  political,  and  religious' phenomenon.  Our  growth  a 
surprise,  our  institutions  a  marvel,  and  our  prowess  the  dread  of  older 
civilizations. 

Contemporaneous  with  America’s  celebration  of  the  four  hundredth 
year  of  Columbus’  discovery,  is  the  honoring  of  the  Centennial  of  Or¬ 
ganized  Modern  Christian  Missions.  Are  not  these  incidents  and  coin¬ 
cidents  in  the  history  of  progress  suggestive  of  the  orderings  of  Divine 
Providence  in  things  pertaining  to  the  Kingdom  of  Christ?  Can  we  in¬ 
telligently  contemplate  the  Gospel  apart  from  the  history  of  progress? 
The  sublime  pathos  of  the  Gospel  is  its  proposition  to  uplift  humanity 
from  its  self-imposed  degradation  through  human  instrumentality.  The 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


41 


Gospel  contemplates  nothing  short  of  the  redemption  and  reclamation 
of  the  earth  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  this  through  the  agency  of  the 
Church  of  -Christ. 

The  field  of  missionary  operations  is  the  world,  God  is  the  power, 
Christ  the  inspiration,  and  man  the  worker.  This  enterprise  startled 
angels  and  transformed  the  hearts  of  men.  God  loves  the  world  without 
regard  to  races  or  nationalities.  In  man’s  relation  to  law,  and  in  the  meth¬ 
ods  of  redemption  from  its  course,  “there  is  no  difference — there  is  neither 
Jew  nor  Greek,”  Barbarian  or  Sythian,  bond  or  free.  Nevertheless,  if 
we  trace  the  designs  of  God  in  the  handwriting  of  Providence  we  find 
the  Jew  first,  then  the  Gentile.  So  we  find  also  the  geographical  dis¬ 
tribution,  first  the  East  and  then  the  West.  Westward  is  the  course  of 
empire.  Good  Bishop  Berkely  prophecied  further  than  he  knew.  The 
forces  of  progress  are  ever  Westward.  In  a  single  century  we  see  the 
movement  of  power  from  the  East  to  the  West  of  our  empire  Republic. 

The  settlement  of  the  North  American  Continent  by  Christian  people 
may  be  fairly  interpreted  a  providential  arrangement  for  the  more  sure 
and  rapid  enlightenment  of  the  nations  of  the  earth.  The  imperfect 
civilizations  of  the  Old  World  had  become  so  faff  corrupted  and  so  far 
removed  from  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel  that  a  new  people,  new  in¬ 
stitutions,  fresh  inspirations —a  “New  World”  was  needed  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  holding  the  truth,  and  giving  it  in  its  purity  to  the  benighted 
regions  of  the  “Old  World.” 

It  is  a  truth  of  man’s  nature  that  superiority  must  dominate  inferior¬ 
ity.  In  the  relations  of  human  life  the  weak  are  dependent  upon  the 
strong.  It  is  furthermore  true  that,  for  the  superior  races  of  man,  po¬ 
litical  freedom  is  necessary  to  the  largest  civil  progress  and  highest 
Christian  attainment.  There  can  be  no  true  development  of  a  race 
innately  progressive  where  there  is  not  freedom  of  thought  and  con¬ 
science— the  mind  must  not  be  held  insubordinate  subjection  to  civil  or 
ecclesiastical  autocracy  or  monarchy.  Religious  liberty,  guaranteed  by 
civil  institutions,  is  necessary  to  that  freedom  of  conscience  upon  which 
depends  Christian  development.  Religious  freedom  —  a  benediction 
from  Baptists  to  America — makes  it  the  world’s  greatest  Christian  land. 
American  institutions  educate  the  American  heart  to  the  largest  hu¬ 
manity.  Out  of  this,  under  the  ministrations  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  comes 
the  largest  spirit  of  Missions. 

The  blessings  which  Providence  has  so  munificently  bestowed  upon 
America  in  making  of  it  the  land  and  home  of  the  free;  in  lavishing 
upon  her  people  phenomenal  wealth,  as  the  product  of  seemingly  inex¬ 
haustible  natural  resources,  and  in  defending  her  against  foreign  foes, 
give  unto  her  wonderful  opportunities  and  power  for  blessing  mankind. 

These  blessings  to  a  people  come  not  without  corresponding  obliga¬ 
tions  and  responsibilities.  The  measure  of  our  obligation  is  the  degree 
of  our  blessings  from  the  hands  of  the  God  to  whom  we  are  responsible. 


42 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


May  we  not  begin  to  estimate  the  magnitude  of  America  as  a  factor 
in  Mission  work.  Here  we  are — forty-four  free  Republics  held  in  Union 
by  common  consent  of  a  free  and  enlightened  citizenship.  It  is  con¬ 
ceded  by  staticians  of  other  civilizations  that  we  are  the  most  prosper¬ 
ous  and  the  wealthiest  people  on  earth.  Here  are  unnumbered  churches, 
Christian  colleges,  tens  of  thousands  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  and 
millions  of  Christian  communicants.  What  does  all  this  mean?  Why 
this  wonderful  growth  into  greatness  in  so  ^ort  a  while?  What  are  we 
here  for?  Let  me  ask  you,  fellow-Christians,  is  our  mission  no  more 
than  personal  aggrandizement  and  national  boasting?  Why  our  fertile 
soils,  our  diversified  product,  our  abounding  mines  of  precious  metals. 
Are  these  things  ours,  or  are  they  God’s?  Are  we  fee  simple  owners,  or 
tenants  and  stewards? 

Does  not  the  condition  and  history  of  American  people  bring  us  into 
peculiar  relation  to  other  peoples?  Have  we  not  God-committed  mes¬ 
sages  for  those  less  favored  than  we?  That  Frenchman’s  gift  standing 
in  New  York  harbor,  symbolizing  our  own  America  as  Liberty  enlight¬ 
ening  the  world,  is  politically  significant.  But,  may  we  not  learn  an¬ 
other  lesson  from  that  Radiant  statue.  Beams  there  not  a  light  upon  far- 
off  peoples  from  the  thousands  of  movements  decking  our  fair  land  in 
honor  of  and  subservient  to  the  Light  of  the  World?  Ah!  friends  and 
brethren,  believe  it!  Believe  it!  America’s  relation  to  the  peoples  of 
the  earth  make  of  her  the  most  important  factor  in  the  missionary  work 
of  the  world! 

WHAT,  THEN,  IS  OUR  DUTY? 

First — Strengthen  the  things  that  remain:  bring  all  our  forces  into 
harmony  with  the  spirit  and  purpose  of  Christ’s  Kingdom.  Is  the  reli¬ 
gion  of  Jesus  Christ  merely  a  plan — a  scheme  for  individual  salvation 
for  the  individual’s  sake?  If  the  Gospel  purpose  be  limited,  as  we  have 
heard  here,  and  that  limited  purpose  backed  by  Infinite  energy,  then 
we  may  be  assured,  do  as  we  may,  that  purpose  shall  be  accomplished. 
Is  your  missionary  conviction  and  zeal  only  an  evidence  of  your  conver¬ 
sion?  Well,  I  have  nothing  to  do  with  divine  decrees.  I  have  not  been 
admitted  to  the  secret  councils  of  the  Trinity.  One  thing  I  believe — 
man  is  self-ruined.  Yet  another- thing  I  believe — Christ  Jesus  came  into 
the  world  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost.  I  know  He  said,  in  touching 
words  of  prayer  to  the  Father,  “As  Thou  didst  send  me  into  the  world, 
even  so  have  I  also  sent  them  into  the  world.”  Here  is  the  mission  of 
the  church  to  seek  and  to  save  the  lost.  Holding  forth  the  word  life 
is  the  high  calling  and  solemn  trust  of  the  people  of  God.  Ye  are  the 
light  of  the  world,  the  salt  of  the  earth.  I  cannot  see  the  Church  of 
Christ  in  any  other  light  than  that  which  is  beaming  from  the  Cross. 
Missions  and  Christianity  are  to  my  mind  synonomous  terms.  Conver¬ 
sion  in  Christ  is  to  bring  you  and  me,  my  brother,  into  sympathy  with 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


43 


Christ’s  purpose  and  work  to  save  the  world.  We  ought  not — we  cannot 
live  to  ourselves.  If  life  is  shut  in  to  individualism  then  it  is  a  blunder, 
and  living  is  a  stupendous  humbug.  To  free  man  from  the  narrowness 
of  selfness,  Christ  died.  He  died  that  they  which  live  should  not  hence¬ 
forth  live  unto  themselves,  but  unto  Him  who  died  for  them  and  rose 
again.  Is  the  Church  an  institution  in  cold  separateness  from  the 
world,  or  is  it  not  rather  an  inspiration  in  sympathizing  touch  with  lost 
humanity?  The  Church  ought  to  uplift  itself  from  institutionalism  into 
the  inspiring  atmosphere  of  that  love  that  outstretches  bleeding  hands 
to  embrace  a  world.  The  time  has  come  for  the  Church  to  understand 
and  appreciate  its  place  in  the  redemptive  economy  of  the  Gospel,  and 
zealously  conserve  its  spritual  forces.  If  the  Church  be  not  the  incarna¬ 
tion  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ,  then  it  is  no  more  than  a  human  organiza¬ 
tion.  If  it  be  the  body  of  Christ  then  its  mission  is  identical  with  His 
mission.  It  cannot  afford  to  fritter  away  its  strength  in  vain  philoso¬ 
phies,  or  uncertain  speculation,  or  hollow  ceremonies.  It  must  not  de¬ 
bilitate  itself  by  a  mechanical  use  of  forms — responsive  and  concert 
readings  prescribed  by  and  furnished  at  “headquarters.”  Such  intru¬ 
sions  upon  the  simplicity  of  spiritual  worship  are  ominous.  Let  us  be 
careful  to  watch  tendencies.  They  are  more  influential  in  Church  as 
well  as  in  State  than  open  and  violent  revolutions.  We  need  not  so 
much  dread  “Higher  Criticism”  or  “Advanced  (?)  Thought,”  or  “Scien- 
rific  Methods,”  as  the  tendency  to  formalism  and  the  craze  for  multitu- 
dinous  organizations  outside  of  the  Church.  What  we  need  is  a  simple, 
robust  faith  that  courts  conflict  with  the  powers  of  darkness  and  proj^o- 
ses  assault  upon  the  frowning  ramparts  of  sin  and  Satan. 

Brethren,  the  Word  is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit.  Let  us  preach  the 
Word — it  is  spirit  and  life.  If  our  churches  would  be  missionary  in  the 
truest  and  best  sense  they  must  hold  fast  the  form  of  sacred  words  and 
earnestly  contend  for  the  faith  delivered  once  for  all  to  the  Saints.  The 
business  of  the  Church  is  the  conversion  of  the  world.  It  has  no  busi¬ 
ness  with  any  other  business.  But  this  mission  implies  and  compre¬ 
hends  more  than  striving  for  numbers. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  the  law  of  our  life  is  found  in  social  envi¬ 
ronment,  and  there  is  no  way  to  fulfill  the  law  but  to  lovingly  serve  our 
fellow  mortals,  and  this  is  exactly  what  the  Church  is  for.  If  any  one 
of  you  were  cast  off  alone  upon  a  lonely  island  of  the  seas,  you  could 
worship  God;  you  could  adore  Him;  you  could  commune  with  him;  but 
you  could  not  serve  Him.  There  would  be  no  field.  The  relation  we 
sustain  to  others  is  the  ground  and  explanation  of  moral  obligation.  We 
cannot  negatively  answer  the  question:  “Am  I  my  brother’s  keeper?” 

We  must  go  a  step  further  and  learn  the  relation  of  the  material  to 
the  spiritual — the  temporal  to  the  eternal.  There  seems  too  much  of  a 
disposition  to  draw  a  line  of  separation  between  the  sacred  and  the  secu¬ 
lar.  For  the  purposes  of  human  speech  it  is  sometimes  convenient  to 


I 


* 


44  CENTENNIAL  CELEBBATION 

make  a  distinction  when  there  is  not  a  difference,  but  in  point  of  truth 
there  is  no  difterenc  between  religion  and  business.  We  are  taught: 
Whatsoever  you  do,  whether  you  eat  or  drink,  do  all  things  in  the  name 
of  Christ.  They  who  tell  us,  with  a  knowing  shrug  of  the  shoulder, 
and  a  wise  blink  of  the  eye,  that  “business  is  business  and  religion  is  re¬ 
ligion,”  have  more  of  business  than  of  religion.  Our  employments 
ought  to  be  a  factor  of  our  religion. 

Not  until  we  shall  have  learned  that  God’s  reign  is  a  universal  unity, 
and  that  the  same  law  operates  through  the  diverse  ramification  of  all 
things,  can  we  know  that  life,  with  its  capabilities  and  opportunities,  is 
subservient  to  the  honor  of  the  maker  and  owner  of  all  things.  The 
world  of  matter  is  as  much  a  part  of  God’s  domain  as  the  world  of  spirit; 
and  he  has  not  divorced  the  one  from  the  other.  He  lays  tribute  upon  the 
carnal  for  the  honor  and  triumph  of  the  spiritual.  Man’s  dominion  over  ‘ 
the  works  of  God  in  the  earth  is  to  the  end  that  man  shall  act  as  a  serv¬ 
ant  in  honoring  the  Creator  in  the  use  of  material  environment.  Then, 
whether  we  dig  or  build,  sow  or  reap,  buy  or  sell,  all  must  be  done  in 
the  line  of  seeking  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  his  righteousness. 

There  is  a  mighty  material  agency  which,  in  this  connection,  I  must 
not  fail  to  mention — I  mean  the  printing  press.  Christianity  was  wise 
to  lay  holy  hands  on  this  almost  marvelous  invention.  There  is  not 
so  potent  an  engine  in  its  factors  of  progress  as  the  press.  We  live  in 
the  printing-reading  age.  Christian  progress  would  be  next  to  impossi¬ 
ble  without  this  wonderful  auxiliary.  Mission  work  would  be  a  com¬ 
parative  failure  were  it  not  for  printing.  The  time  was  when  oratory 
educated  thought  and  directed  the  movements  of  men.  Now  it  is  the 
press.  This  engine  has  come  to  stay.  If  it  were  well  to  banish  it,  it 
could  not  be  done.  If  the  Church  fail  to  make  most  of  the  press  it  fails 
to  do  its  utmost  for  the  spread  of  divine  truth.  It  is  true  that  the  press 
•  is  to  an  extent  used  against  Christianity,  but  this  is  only  another  reason 
why  the  Church  of  Christ  should  use  all  diligence  in  commanding  this 
miracle  of  science  and  art  in  the  intei*ests  of  truth. 

It  is  true,  and  must  ever  be  true,  that  the  preached  Word  is  the  prime 
instrumentality  for  enlisting  the  hearts  of  men  in  the  service  of  Christ. 
But,  for  the  enlargement  of  Christian  intelligence,  and  the  invigoration 
of  the  spirit  of  progress,  the  press  is  indispensable. 

Second — Cultivate  the  waste  land  of  your  own  field.  How  shall  we  do 
our  duty  to  the  regions  beyond  if  we  do  not  bring  our  own  strength  up 
to  maximum  possibilities?  He  who  tills  the  soil  has  not  much  to  sell  to 
the  exporter  unless  he  utilizes  every  available  resource.  Are  we  giv¬ 
ing  our  attention  to  home  field.  Foreign  Missions  are  deservedly  pop¬ 
ular.  But  may  not  a  misguided  enthusiasm  for  Foreign  Missions  serve 
to  defeat  the  end  at  which  we  aim  by  overlooking  the  duty  of  developing 
home  resources?  Let  us  not  give  less  to  the  foreign  field,  but  more  to 
the  home  field. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


45 


Have  we  need  of  enthusiasm  and  enlarged  interest  in  Home  Missions? 
Have  we  destitution?  Let  us  see?  The  population  of  our  States  and 
Territories  is,  in  round  numbers,  sixty-five  millions.  We  are  a  religious 
people,  but  are  we  a  Christian  people.  There  is  much  religion  in  the 
world.  Mohammedans  have  it.  Buddhists  have  it.  Confucians  have  it. 
What  we  want  is  not  nominal  Christianity,  but  Christianity.  What  of 
our  vast  population?  Have  we  more  than  seven  million  communicants 
in  Evangelical  Churches?  Suppose  we  put  the  number  at  ten  million, 
then  we  have  less  than  one-sixth  of  our  population  who  can  be  reckoned 
Christian.  What  of  the  five-sixths  and  more?  Suppose  we  narrow  the 
estimate  down  to  our  own  denominational  standard  of  truth.  Have  we 
all  told  more  than  three  million  communicants  in  this  country  of  Chris¬ 
tian  name?  This  puts  nineteen-twentieths  of  our  population  in  the 
dark.  With  legitimate  limitations,  we  may  say  that  this  is  a  heathen 
land.  If  we  extend  the  term  America  over  Mexico  and  Cuba  the  dark¬ 
ness  intensifies. 

But  what  further  of  our  population?  Here  we  have  a  large  element  of 
foreign  birth  and  children  of  foreign-born  parents.  Almost  every  language 
on  earth  is  spoken  in  the  United  States.  Every  phase  of  social  life,  every 
aspect  of  crime  and  every  shade  of  belief  and  unbelief  is  represented  by  this 
population.  Speaking  from  the  promptings  of  the  American  spirit,  and  at 
the  suggestion  of  American  institutions,  these  people  are  Americans.  But 
how  shall  eight  million  Germans,  who  are,  because  of  their  devotion  to 
the  Fatherland,  more  German  than  American?  How  shall  we  mold  into 
homogenity  our  heterogeneous  mass  of  Germans,  Irish,  French,  Norwe¬ 
gian,  Portuguese,  Italian,  Negro,  and  Indian,  and  what  not,  if  it  be  not 
by  the  unifying  power  of  the  Gospel.  Shall  not  we  expect  and  hope  for 
the  answer  to  our  Savior’s  prayer  that  there  “may  be  one.”  What  a 
work?  How  grand  the  proposition!  How  difficult  the  undertaking! 
But  is  not  the  grandeur  measured  by  the  difficulty?  Is  it  not  a  fact  ^ 
that,  notwithstanding  our  national  prosperity  and  glory,  and  our  more 
than  a  century  of  age,  that  we  are  yet,  as  a  people,  in  the  formative 
stage  of  our  being?  What  shall  be  our  crystalized  character?  Are  we 
not  to  have  a  distinguishing  characteristic?  Shall  it  be  wealth,  or  power, 
or  prowess,  or  learning,  or  sumptuous  luxury  and  effeminateness?  Or 
shall  it  be  Godliness?  It  is  righteousness  that  exalteth  a  nation.  This 
is  not  namby-pamby  ism;  this  is  not  sickly  sentimentalism;  this  is  not 
goody-goodism;  it  is  philosophy — it  is  common  sense.  If  the  Lord  be 
God,  then  His  will  must  be  the  only  true  philosophy  of  life.  Say  not 
that  the  Word  of  God  has  nothing  to  do  with  social  conditions,  nor 

social  conditions  with  the  Word  of  God.  God’s  will  is  a  law  from 

♦ 

Heaven  for  life  on  earth. 

The  conversion  and  Christian  development  of  our  foreign  population 
will  become  the  mightiest  force  for  the  Christianization  of  the  nations 
represented  there.  Excellent  Foreign  Mission  work  will  be  to  convert 


46 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


our  own  foreigners.  In  proportion  to  the  increase  of  America’s  foreign 
population,  will  be  the  influence  of  America  upon  the  conditions  of  life 
in  other  lands.  What  shall  that  infltience  be?  It  remains  for  American 
Christians  to  answer  the  question.  The  progress  of  Christianity  in  this 
country  clearly  indicates  that  Baptists  are  a  leading  factor  in  morally 
revolutionizing  the  world.  You  see  your  calling,  brethren. 

In  the  work  of  home  evangelization  we  are  to  intelligently  recognize 
the  suggestions  of  social  conditions  and  govern  ourselves  by  the  irre¬ 
vocable  laws  of  God  as  written  in  the  nature  of  things.  The  history  of 
the  Indian  for  ages  proves  that  his  place  and  mission  in  the  world  is  not 
that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  Shall  we  ask  of  God:  Why?  Nay,  verily! 
iThis  is  none  of  our  business.  Yet,  the  Indian  has  mind — he  has  a  soul; 
and  the  best  Indian  is  not  the  dead  Indian.  I  shall  not  endeavor  to 
paint  a  picture  of  the  white  man’s  cruelty  to  the  red  man.  The  colors 
would  be  so  dark  that  there  could  be  no  light  upon  the  shadings.  This 
much  we  all  know,  that  as  Christians  we  are  debtors  to  all  men,  and  the 
Indian  is  man,  and  in  him  can  be  developed  many  qualities  of  moral 
good.  Who  so  indebted  to  the  Indian  as  the  white  man?  Shall  we 
continue  to  drive  the  Indian  from  the  earth?  No!  No!  Rather  let  us 
help  him  to  inherit  the  earth,  and  all  the  blessings  of  the  eternal  life. 
Let  us,  with  the  Word  of  Life  wipe  the  Indian’s  blood  from  our  skirts 
and  offer  unto  him  newness  of  life.  He  is  God’s  mind-creature. 

We  have  among  us  seven  million  Negroes.  What  of  this  fact?  It  is 
a  dark  fact;  can  we  throw  light  upon  it?  Here  they  are  invested  with 
civil  rights — a  political  anomaly.  Unfortunately  they  are  here  to  stay 
with  a  race  superior  in  numbers  and  natural  gifts.  The  superior  race 
must  always  dominate  the  inferior.  This  can’t  be  helped!  If  there  are 
any  “fixed  laws”  this  is  one  of  them.  We*  all  know  it,  whether  we  admit 
it  or  not.  Yet  there  is  no  “race  problem”  for  statesmen  or  religionists 
^  to  solve.  The  negro  is  a  citizen.  It  is  his  duty  to  he  a  good  citizen.  It 
is  the  duty  of  the  white  man  to  help  him  become  just  as  good  a  citizen 
as  it  is  possible  for  him  to  be.  The  negro  is  instinctively  religious — his 
religion  is  impulsive  and  physically  demonstrative.  He  needs  the 
Christian  religion  to  enlighten  him  as  to  the  significance  of  life  and  its 
relations  and  duties.  To  help  him  to  be  a  good  citizen  and  an  informed 
Christian  it  is  the  duty  of  the  white  man — this  and  nothing  more,  cer¬ 
tainly  nothing  less.  We  owe  him  nothing  that  we  do  not  owe  others. 
He  is  not  the  “nation’s  ward,”  he  is  by  law  a  part  of  the  nation — if  we 
have  any  nation.  All  we  have  to  do  with  the  supposed  “problem”  is  to 
let  it  alone,  and  see  that  the  negro  is  taught  to  behave  himself  rightly, 
and  make  him  do  so  when  necessary,  just  a^  we  white  folks. 

There  is  no  occasion  for  any  political  or  sectional  prejudices  about  the 
negro  All  restrictions  by  secular  or  religious  assemblies  about 
“Southern  Outrages”  are  hut  the  expressions  of  sectional  dislike  under 
the  guise  of  Christian  humanity.  Southern  society  has  the  right  to 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


47 


protect  defenseless  purity  by  such  means  as  the  circumstances  of  the 
case  seem  to  demand.  And  this  right  is  as  sacred  in  Alabama  as  it  is  in 
Nebraska  or  Indiana.  Lynch  law  is,  as  a  rule,  wrong.  Judge  Lynch’s 
court  should  be  of  rare  resort,  and  it  is.  Society  creates  all  courts,  and 
society  must  be  the  judge  of  jurisdiction  in  special  cases  where  just 
popular  indignation  demands  summary  and  exemplary  retribution  to  un¬ 
endurable  social  outrages.  Any  noble  people  will  protect  their  wives 
and  daughters  against  white  or  black  demons.  Let  us  seek  to  give  all 
classes  and  races  that  Christian  education  and  Christian  thought  and 
Christian  spirit  that  shall  leave  Judge  Lynch  without  an  occupation  and 
retire  him  from  his  rugged  bench.  The  Southern  white  Christian  is 
giving  the  negro  the  gospel,  only  give  it  more  freely  and  lovingly.  This 
we  must  do.  We  must  do  it  sincerely,  prayerfully  and  thoughtfully,  and 
leave  all  questions  of  social  conditions  to  settle  themselves  in  harmony 
with  the  laws  of  nature  physiologically  written.  The  negro,  like  any 
other  citizen,  must  fight  the  battle  of  life  according  to  the  suggestions 
and  requirements  of  environment.  If  he  can  bring  himself  to  the  front, 
let  him  come,  but  don’t  try  to  tear  down  nature’s  walls  to  get  him  there. 

W e  have  great  occasion  to  thank  God  for  the  generous  efforts  made  by 
Baptists  and  others  for  the  Christian  education  of  the  negro  and  the  negro 
ministry.  Let  the  work  go  on!  Let  it  go  forward  mightily,  but  away 
with  that  maudlin  sentiment  that  jDrates  of  social  equality.  No  intelli¬ 
gent  white  man  or  woman  wants  or  believes  in  it.  Those  who  preach 
it  don’t  nor  won’t  practice  it.  The  informed  negro  don’t  demand  it  or 
expect  it.  There  is  no  harm  in  the  color  line  so  that  it  be  drawn  at  its 
right  place  and  proper  time.  It  will  be  drawn.  No  sentiment,  no  statute 
can  prevent  it. 

Where  shall  we  expend  our  energies  in  Home  Mission  work?  Every¬ 
where.  But  especially  in  our  cities.  I  am  a  countryman.  The  plow 
and  the  harrow,  the  mower  and  the  rake  make  my  bread,  but  I  try  to^ 
give  some  attention  to  the  nature  and  demands  of  mission  fields.  I  am 
not  indifferent  to  the  wants  of  our  rural  districts.  My  tastes  ahd  my 
sympathies  are  with  the  ruralist.  But  I  realize  the  fact  that  must  rec- 
ogi^nize,  that,  the  progress  of  our  country  has  greatly  changed  the  fields 
and  methods  of  missionary  work.  There  are  destitute  fields  in  the  rural 
districts,  but  the  number  and  extent  of  such  fields  are  small  compared 
with  even  the  recent  part.  Our  country  churches  have  greatly  multi¬ 
plied  and  increased  in  efficiency.  Yet  there  are  some  localities  in  each 
of  the  States  where  the  people  are  without  church  privileges  and  where 
the  living  ministry  is  much  needed  to  win  souls  to  Christ,  and  minister 
comfort  and  consolation  and  growth  to  the  scattered  and  neglected  saints. 
But  it  is  not  as  once  it  was,  when  our  fathers  preached  in  private  resi¬ 
dences,  log  school  houses  and  barns  beneath  the  shading  boughs  of  forest 
monarchs.  The  missionary  is  no  longer  the  “lone  horseman”  with  saddle 
pockets,  carrying  the  Word  of  God  in  one  side  and  a  twist  of  “legal 


48 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


tender”  in  the  other,  with  perhaps  a  change  of  linen.  Now  the  iron 
horse  and  the  palace  car  carry  the  missionary  within  convenient  distance 
of  almost  every  settlement.  The  white  country  church  with  its  adjacent 
village  of  the  dead  is  now  the  beauty  of  our  wide  extended  land.  The 
remaining  uncultivated  fields  are  receiving  a  fair  ratio  of  attention  at 
the  hands  of  our  boards. 

The  centers  of  population — towns  and  cities  are  of  increasing  interest 
to  the  sociologist,  the  publicist  and  the  enterprising  Christian.  The 
tendency  of  our  population  is  to  these  centers.  They  are  now  the  seats 
of  enterprise,  the  depositories  of  wealth,  the  homes  of  fashion,  and  the 
hotbeds  of  iniquity.  Bless  God,  they  are  also  the  abodes  of  much  of  the 
force  and  beauty  and  enterprise  of  Christianity.  The  magnificence  of 
some  of  our  metropolitan  churches  is  beautifully  exemplary.  It  remains 
true,  however,  that  our  church  sittings  in  cities  is  not  ec^ual  to  what 
ought  to  be  the  church-going  habit.  Why  is  this  so?  It  is  simply  be¬ 
cause  the  extent  of  religion  does  not  demand  more  extensive  church 
facilities.  The  demand  ought  to  be  increased.  This  can  be  done  only 
by  missionary  effort. 

The  influence  of  centers  of  population  upon  the  thought,  sentiment, 
tastes,  and  customs  of  the  rural  districts  is  so  great  that  it  demands  the 
careful  thought  on  the  part  of  all  Christian  workers.  The  increased 
methods  of  rapid  transit,  the  quick  communication  of  news,  and  the  gen¬ 
eral  circulation  of  the  metropolitan  daily  newspaper  are  bring¬ 
ing  the  country  more  and  more  under  the  domination  of  the  town.  Our 
swains  and  lasses  catch  the  contagion  of  city  dudes  and  belles,  and  learn 
to  attitudinize  and  pose  by  looking  at  advertisement  wood  cuts  and 
fashion  plates.  This  in  itself  may  be  innocent  and  harmless,  but  it 
proves  and  illustrates  the  potency  of  city  influence.  Why  we  country 
folk,  we  horny-handed  sons  of  toil,  boast  of  our  political  mastery,  and 
then  when  the  primaries  are  all  over  we  sulk  because  we  find  ourselves 
the  dupes  and  tools  of  hoodlums  and  fixers. 

Now"  it  is  true  that  much  that  is  good  every  way  goes  forth  from  the 
city  to  impress  and  improve  the  country — yet  there  goes  with  it  all  much 
devilment.  The  jjrize  fight,  the  horse  race,  the  lottery,  the  gambling 
spirit,  the  halls  of  dancing,  and  the  houses  of  sinful  pleasure.  We  need 
strong  men  in  our  cities,  men  of  humane  hearts  and  divine  inspiration, 
to  dam  up  the  dark  streams  of  damnation. 

It’s  a  pity,  and  more  is  the  pity  that  it’s  a  pity,  ^that  many,  very  many 
of  the  best  and  most  hopeful  of  our  young  men  of  the  country  are  yearly 
flocking  to  our  cities,  caused  by  the  hope  of  fortune  and  desire  for  clean, 
easy  living.  City  Christians  should  use  all  diligence  to  protect,  promote, 
and  save  the  sons  of  the  soil. 

When  we  view  the  state  of  religion  in  our  own  America,  in  the  ratio 
of  its  converts  to  the  whole  population,  the  nature  and  progress  of  our 
social  institutions,  the  relation  that  our  country,  as  the  home  of  a  world- 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


49 


conquering  civilization,  sustains  to  other  countries,  we  are,  or  ought  to 
be,  at  once  convinced  that  American  Home  Missions  is  the  key-stone  in 
the  arch  of  the  world’s  evangelization. 

Third — All  that  I  have  endeavored  to  set  forth  in  this  hasty  and  cur¬ 
sory  discussion  serves  to  emphacize  and  magnify  the  importance  of 
America  as  a  factor  in  Foreign  Mission  work.  When  we  send  the  Gos¬ 
pel  in  the  dark  places  at  home  we  are  paving  the  way  to  send  it  more 
into  ‘‘darkest  Afrdca,”  superstitious  China,  oppressed  India,  ignorant 
Italy,  cursed  Cuba,  and  degraded  Mexico.  Yet,  shall  we  wait  for  our 
fullest  fruition  to  home  work  before  we  hearken  the  cry,  “Come  over 
and  help  us.”  Nay,  we  have  not  done  so,  nor  should  we.  Shall  one 
wait  until  his  own  enterprises  have  filled  the  measure  of  his  expecta¬ 
tions  before'%e  feeds  the  hungry  poor?  Never!  That  were  sinful. 

America’s  Christians  have  a  sublime  mission  with  sublirner  prospects. 
It  is  now  our  privilege  and  opportunity  to  fling  back  glorious  light  into 
the  benighted  East,  whence  came  the  light  that  enlightened  us.  Oar 
civil  institutions,  our  popular  government,  our  zealous  care  of  individual 
rights,  under  the  fostering  care  and  guidance  of  Divine  truth,  are  the 
thorns  in  the  crowns  of  emperors,  the  dynamite  beneath  the  thrones  of 
tyracits,  and  the  hope  of  the  oppressed  and  the  downtrodden  of  less 
favored  lands. 

Pair  America!  Proud  America!!  Free  America!!!  May  Christian 
truth  and  the  spirit  of  the  Christ — the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel,  and 
practical  Godliness  be  the  palladium  of  the  blood-bought  and  God-given 
liberty,  the  inspiration  to  thy  life,  the  assurance  of  thy  perpetuity,  and 
thy  benedictions  to  far-off  peoples. 

Prof.  H.  H.  Harris  emphasized  the  thought  that  the  race 
problem  would  solve  itself  if  let  alone. 

Rev.  W.  C.  Grace,  of  Tennessee,  said  that  in  the  mountain 
region  of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  there  are  more 
Baptists  to  the  square  mile  than  in  any  other  section. 

Hr.  Ellis  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  Christianity  is  not 
dependent  upon  the  favor  of  governments,  because  it  spread 
more  rapidly  than  at  any  other  time  under  the  tyranny  of 
Rome  during  the  first  two  centuries.  Let  us  not  count  too 
much  on  social  institutions.  What  is  the  actual  influence  of 
free  America  on  Africa?  She  is  damning  it  with  rum.  En¬ 
gland  with  her  opium  and  America  with  her  rum  join  hands 
at  the  altaj*  of  mammon. 

A  word  as  to  formalism.  There  are  two  conceptions  of 
worship;  one  of  expre^^ion,  the  other  of  impression.  Gothic 


/ 


50 


CENTENNIAL.  CELEBRATION 


piles,  decorations,  clouds  of  incense  are  designed  to  impress 
and  overawe  the  worshiper.  The  whole  conception  of  Bap¬ 
tist  worship  gathers  about  the  pulpit  and  not  the  altar.  Our 
people  are  known  by  their  adherence  to  the  Book,  not  by  the 
cut  of  a  coat. 

Rev.  J.  M.  Weaver  explained  his  views  of  the  aim  and 
nature  of  missionary  work. 

Dr.  Ryland  dismissed  the  audience. 

MONDAY  AFTERNOON. 

Rev.  B.  D.  Gray,  of  Mississippi,  spoke  upon  ^ 

METHODS  IN  MISSIONS. 

What  suits  one  field  will  not  suit  another.  Paul  tried  different  meth¬ 
ods,  according  to  his  surroundings. 

Method  will  be  largely  determined  by  the  aim  in  view.  With  Protes¬ 
tants  who  believe  in  a  general  study  of  the  Scriptures,  the  translation 
and  circulation  of  the  Bible  is  emphasized.  The  methods  of  the  China 
Inland  Mission,  who  believe  in  preaching  the  Gospel  as  a  witness  to  the 
nations,  must  be  different  from  those  of  a  mission  that  aims  at  the 
founding  and  indoctrinating  of  churches. 

Well,  what  ought  to  be  the  aim?  I  take  it  that  Christ’s  Commission 
gives  it  cleanly.  It  is  broad  enough*  in  its  scope  and  plain  enough  in  its 
substance. 

The  mission  of  the  twelve  is  set  aside,  on  the  ground  that  the  later 
and  more  comprehensive  excludes  the  early  and  more  limited  commis¬ 
sion.  Going  without  support  is  expressly  abrogated  by  Christ.  His 
disciples  were  to  take  money  and  means  of  defense.  But  even  in  the 
earlier  commission  it  is  said  that  the  laborer  is  worthy  of  his  hire. 
Paul  maintains  the  doctrine  of  his  right  to  a  support  from  the  churdhes, 
while  for  the  sake  of  expediency  he  did  not  demand  it.  Men  are  now 
converting  a  matter  of  policy  into  a  matter  of  principle. 

What  is  the  aim  of  missions?  It  is  both  itinerant  and  permanent. 
The  Commission  has  in  it  nothing  short  of  permanent,  self-supporting, 
self-propagating  churches.  The  missionary  journeys  of  Paul  show  his 
solicitude  to  maintain  and  strengthen  the  churches  which  had  been 
brought  together  through  his  labors. 

What  is  the  best  method  for  attaining  the  grand  aim  before  us?  Our 
methods  certainly  ought  to  be  pliable.  There  ought  to  be  *as  much  dif¬ 
ference  in  methods  abroad  as  at  home,  as  much  as  between  the  methods 
of  Walnut-street  church  and  those  of  a  country  church  in  the  mountains. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


51 


We  are  to  evangelize  the  World.  How?  By  preaching;  but  even 
this  is  a  means  and  not  an  end.  We  must  have  more  preachers  on  the 
field.  A  certain  Moravian  church  has  a  missionary  for  every  twenty- 
two  members. 

Along  with  preaching  there  must  be  education.  In  some  cases  educa¬ 
tion  must  go  before  missionary  activity;  in  others  it  ought  to  follow. 
Of  course  there  is  danger  of  going  to  an  extreme. 

We  need  more  money  for  this  work.  Twenty-five  thousand  Moravians 
give  more  than  Southern  Baptists  to  this  cause. 

[Dr.  Gray  reviewed  briefly  three  pamphlets  by  former  missionaries  of 
our  Board,  and  showed  how  in  each  pamphlet  the  principle  for  which  it 
contended  was  violated.] 

Dr.  Bro||dus  doesn’t  get  discouraged  about  differences  of  opinion 
among  Baptists.  Where  there  are  five  Baptists  there  are  usually  five 
opinions. 

We  have  romantic  ideas  as  to  missionaries,  and  set  them  on  a  high 
pedestal.  But,  after  all,  they  are  just  men.  They  may  be  unfit  for  mis¬ 
sion  work,  or  may  lose  their  health.  In  every  great  commercial  enter¬ 
prise  there  are  failures,  and  so  it  must  be  in  missionary  operations. 

MONDAY  NIGHT. 

Prayer  was  offered  by  W.  H.  Felix,  D.  D.,  of  Lexington, 
Kentucky. 

Dr.  J.  B.  Hawthorne,  of  A,tlanta,  Ga.,  spoke  on 

THE  BEGINNING  OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 

Man  is  a  commemorative  being.  He  remembers;  he  cherishes  the 
recollection  of  events  in  his  history,  and  that  of  his  family,  and  nation, 
and  race,  which  were  unusually  significant,  instructive,  or  pleasing. 

When  Joshua,  Israel’s  great  military  leader,  had  completed  his  work 
of  conquering  the  idolatrous  tribes  of  Canaan,  and  of  putting  the  Lord’s 
people  into  possession  of  that  land  of  promise,  knowing  that  he  must 
soon  die,  he  summoned  the  Israelites  before  him  and  delivered  to  them 
his  valedictory  message.  He  reviewed  their  history,  and  showed  how 
God  had  guided  and  blessed  them  and  fulfilled  the  promise  he  had 
made  centuries  before  to  their  fathers.  He  warned  them  of  the  sin  and 
peril  of  idolatry,  and  exhorted  them  to  continue  in  the  worship  of  the 
Lord  God,  who  had  delivered  them  from  bondage  and  brought  them 
into  that  land  of  plenty  and  beauty. 

With  one  voice  they  responded,  declaring  that  they  would  serve  the 
Lord,  and  Him.  only.  Then  Joshua  took  a  great  stone  and  set  it  up  un- 


52 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBKATION 


der  an  oak,  which  stood  near  the  sanctuary,  and  said,  “Behold,  this  stone 
shall  be  a  witness  unto  us,  for  it  hath  heard  all  the  words  of  the  Lord 
which  He  spake  unto  us  ;  It  shall,  therefore,  be  a  witness  unto  you  lest 
ye  deny  your  God.”  That  was  a  memorial  stone.  It  was  set  there  to  re¬ 
mind  them  of  a  great  event  in  their  history — the  recording  of  a  solemn 
idedge  to  cleave  to  the  true  and  living  God. 

Years  before  that,  when  they  crossed  the  Jordan,  they  erected  at  the 
place  of  their  crossing  a  heap  of  stones  to  commemorate  the  great  mira¬ 
cle  of  the  dividing  of  the  waters. 

Memorial  pillars,  memorial  altars,  memorial  temj)les,  memorial 
feasts,  and  memorial  days,  make  a  very  conspicuous  feature  of  the  his¬ 
tory  of  the  human  race. 

How  sublime  and  sacred  are  some  of  these  institutions!  The  Sabbath 
day  pointed  back  to  the  completion  of  God’s  creative  work,  *he  Lord’s 
Supper  to  the  atoning  death  of  the  world’s  Redeemer,  and  Baptism  to 
His  burial  and  triumphant  resurrection. 

In  the  institution  of  these  imperishable  ordinances,  the  Lord  God  sig¬ 
nifies  his  approval  of  that  universal  instinct  among  men,  to  commemo¬ 
rate  great  deeds,  great  events,  and  great  epochs. 

The  utility  of  memorial  observances  and  institutions  in  generating, 
strengthening,  and  preserving  virtuous  and  noble  sentiments  and  aspi¬ 
rations,  cannot  be  doubted. 

At  the  capitol  of  our  Republic  stands  the  tallest  monument  ever  reared 
by  human  hands  to  human  greatness,  Cui  hono?  It  stands  there  to  re¬ 
mind  us  of  those  illustrious  deeds  and  virtues  which  made  our  Washing¬ 
ton  “First  in  war,  first  in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  country¬ 
men.”  It  stands  there  overlooking  gvery  other  monument,  to  tell  us 
that  there  is  one  name  in  American  history  above  every  other  name, 
one  example  of  unselfish  devotion  to  country  above  every  other  exam¬ 
ple,  one  star  in  our  nation’s  galaxy  which  shines  with  a  purer,  serener, 
and  steadier  radiance  than  any  other  star.  Let  us  commiserate  the  stu¬ 
pidity  which  fails  to  recognize  and  appreciate  the  wisdom  of  our  people 
in  rearing  that  monument. 

On  the  4th  day  of  July,  1776,  the  old  Liberty  Bell  rang  out  to  the 
world  the  glorious  tidings  that  the  American  Colonies,  through  their 
chosen  representatives,  had  adopted  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
thereby  severing  their  connection  forever  with  the  despotic  government 
of  the  mother  country. 

Who  will  deny  that  the  annual  celebration  of  that  birthday  of  Ameri¬ 
can  freedom,  has  done  much  to  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  liberty  and  pa¬ 
triotism  in  the  breasts  of  ,the  American  people?  . 

I  am  sure  that  I  shall  be  guilty  of  no  extravagance  of  speech  when  I 
say,  that  the  great  Baptist  brotherhood  of  this  and  of  other  continents, 
in  celebrating  the  Centennial  of  Modern  Missions,  commemorate  an 
event  of  incomparably  greater  magnitude  than  the  birth  of  a  nation. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


53 


The  beginning-  of  Modern  Missions  was  the  beginning  of  a  type  of  a 
moral  chivalry,  in  comparison  with  which  the  heroism  displayed  on 
earth’s  bloody  battlefields  is  unworthy  of  mention.  The  beginning  of 
Modern  Missions  was  the  beginning  of  a  sacred  enterprise  that  has  done 
more  for  the  betterment  of  the  world’s  condition  than  all  the  discoveries 
of  science,  the  wisdom  of  statecraft,  or  the  triumphs  of  war. 

I  trust  that  I  give  expression  to  no  unworthy  sentiment  when  I  say, 
that  my  joy  to-day  rises  into  ecstasy  over  the  honor  which  is  mine,  in 
having  membership  in  that  denomination  of  Christians  to  which  be¬ 
longs  the  great  glory  of  beginning  Modern  Missions. 

If  it  be  lawful  and  commendable  in  Lutherans  to  remind  the  world  of 
what  God  wrought  through  the  faith  and  courage  of  Martin  Luther;  if 
Presbyter^ns  may  be  excused  for  pointing  uS  to  the  priceless  products 
of  the  masterful  mind  of  John  Calvin;  and  if  Methodists  are  justly 
proud  of  the  zeal  and  sanctity  and  wisdom  of  John  Wesley,  I  am  sure 
that  Baptists  need  not  be  ashamed  of  William  Carey,  that  dauntless 
Christian  hero, that  prodigy  of  intellect,  energy,  and  grace,  who  conceived 
and  planned  and  put  into  successful  operation,  the  incomparable  enter¬ 
prise  of  Modern  Missions.  It  is  unquestionably  and  elemental  principal 
in  the  economy  of  grace,  to  choose  things  that  are  w*)ak  and  lowly  for 
the  accomplishment  of  the  loftiest  purposes. 

The  instruments  which  God  chooses  for  the  sublimest  and  most  diffi¬ 
cult  undertakings,  are  often  found  in  seemingly  unfavorable  places,  and 
have  but  little  value  in  the  eyes  of  the  world. 

John  the  Baptist  was  a  denizen  of  the  desert,  that  wild,  rugged,  wil¬ 
derness  country  lying  immediately  West  of  the  Jordan. 

When  he  began  to  preach,  in  the  minds  of  the  pharisees— the  religious 
aristocracy — the  great  high-church  party  of  Judea — he  was  only  “a 
reed  shaken  by  the  wind” — a  little  feeble  fluttering  thing  in  the  air, 
that  would  soon  exhaust  itself  and  disappear.  Obscure  in  his  origin,  a 
dweller  in  the  desert,  untaught  by  the  doctors  of  the  la.w,  what  claims 
had  he  as  a  public  teacher  of  men?  Such  was  the  instrument  which  in¬ 
finite  wisdom  chose  to  awake  a  long  slumbering  nation,  and  make  ready 
a  people  for  the  Lord.  And  so  grandly  did  he  accomplish  his  mission 
that  Christ  has  put  him  on  the  loftiest  pinnacle  of  human  greatness. 

'  For  a  movement  of  no  less  magnitude,  and  certainly  not  less  difficult  and 
perilous,  God  chose  William  Carey,  “the  consecrated  cobbler.”  Carey 
began  to  preach  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and  while  he  was  an  apprentice 
in  a  shoemaker’s  shop.  He  asked  no  one  to  give  him  an  education.  He 
determined  that,  with  God’s  help,  he  would  educate  himself.  He  entered 
no  college.  He  made  a  college  of  his  cobbler’s  bench.  There,  “with 
borrowed  grammars  and  lexicons,  and  second-hand  books  bought  at  the 
cost  of  bread,”  he  mastered  Latin  and  Greek  and  Hebrew.  There  he 
studied  natural  science,  and  metaphysics,  and  enriched  his  mind  with 
the  treasures  of  the  best  classic  literature. 


54 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


When  the  hoy,  Corregio,  stood  before  the  canvas  on  which  Raphael 
had  painted  one  of  his  immortal  pictures,  exclaiming,  “I,  too,  am  a 
painter!”  he  was  not  more  conscious  of  the  possibilities  of  his  life  than 
Carey  was  as  he  toiled  in  the  lowly  vocation  of  a  village  cobbler,  that 
God  had  laid  his  ordaining  hand  upon  him,  and  set  him  apart  for  some 
great  scheme  that  would  illumine  and  enrich  the  world. 

If  the  inspiration  which  Corregio  caught  from  Raphael’s  picture,  car¬ 
ried  him  through  all  his  tedious  initial  studies,  blended  his  colors, 
guided  his  pencil,  and  shown  upon  his  canvas  until  he  became  the  peer 
of  Raphael,  we  need  not  wonder  that  under  an  infinitely  deeper,  mightier 
and  diviner  inspiration,  William  Carey  mastered  all  the  difficulties  that 
environed  bis  young  life,  developed  his  mind,  filled  it  with  the  richest 
treasures  of  learning,  and  thoroughly  equipped  himself  for  t|^e  magnifi¬ 
cent  work  to  which  he  was  called,  and  for  the  splendid  triumphs  which 
rewarded  his  labors  of  love. 

While  he  preached  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ  fervently  and 
faithfully  to  the  people  of  his  own  neighborhood  and  country  from  the 
day  of  his  conversion,  his  Christian  sympathies  went  out  towards  the 
benighted  and  neglected  “regions  beyond.”  He  believed  that  Christ 
“died  not  for  our  *jins  only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.”  Every 
nation  was  brought  nigh  to  him  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  and  every  lan¬ 
guage  to  him  was  but  the  medium  through  which  he  longed  to  tell  the 
story  of  redeemed  love.  He  did  not  believe  that  the  marching  orders 
which  the  Captain  of  salvation  had  given  to  His  soldiers  had  even  been 
revoked  or  suspended.  Filled  with  the  inspiration  of  a  deep  conviction, 
and  luminous  with  the  white  heat  of  a  great  and  holy  purpose,  he  dili¬ 
gently  prepared  himself  to  smite  with  paralysis  and  death,-  if  possible, 
the  opposition  of  ministers  and  churches  to  any  immediate  effort  at 
evangelizing  the  pagan  nations. 

When  he  had  reached  his  thirty-first  year,  having  honestly  and  pray¬ 
erfully  investigated  the  great  subject,  absolutely  confident  of  the  cor¬ 
rectness  of  his  position,  he  went  before  the  Nottingham  Association,  to 
which  he  had  been  sent  as  a  messenger  by  his  church,  and  began  the 
contest  by  propounding  as  a  subject  for  discussion  the  following  ques¬ 
tion;  “Is  not  the  command  given  to  the  Apostles  to  teach  all  nations 
binding  on  all  ministers  to  the  end  of  the  world,  seeing  that  the  accom¬ 
panying  promise  is  to  be  with  them  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
world?”  Nothing  more  is  needed  to  prove  that  Carey  had  absolutely  no 
support,  or  sympathy,  in  the  beginning  of  his  movement  than  the  quick 
and  caustic  rebuke  which  was  administered  to  him  by  his  own  spiritual 
father,  the  learned,  the  good,  the  great  Dr.  Ryland,  who,  with  an  air  of 
impatience  and  indignation,  replied,  “You  are  a  miserable  enthusiast 
for  asking  such  a  question.” 

Think  of  such  an  expression  as  coming  from  the  lips  of  a  learned 
leader  of  English  Baptists,  no  longer  than  a  hundred  years  ago.  The 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


55 


veriest  Hardshell  in  the  mountains  of  East  Tennessee,  would  not  g’o  fur¬ 
ther  than  that.  No  reader  of  ecclesiastical  history  can  doubt  that 
our  ‘‘Hardshell”  brethren  have  one  valid  reason  for  calling-  themselves 
“Primitive”  Baptists.  They  certainly  had  “a  local  habitation  and  a 
name”  as  far  back  as  a  century  ago.  Baptists  at  that  period,  like  all 
other  denominations  of  Christians,  were  not  only  doing  nothing  to  give 
the  Gospel  to  the  heathen  world,  but  were  -stubbornly  opposed  to  any 
effort  in  that  direction. 

But  God  be  thanked,  that  through  the  mighty  power  of  his  transform¬ 
ing  grace,  the  Hardshells  became  soft,  and  the  very  people  who  had  so 
sternly  opposed  the  sending  of  the  Gospel  to  the  perishing  pagans,  be¬ 
came  the  pioneers,  the  victorious  leaders,  in  the  battles  of  the  Cross  on 
pagan  soil. 

The  rebuke  which  Carey  received  did  not  baffle  him,  nor  move  him  a 
hair’s  breadth  from  the  line  of  his  holy  purpose.  Modestly,  meekly,  but 
with  a  determination  “fixed  as  fate,”  he  unfurled  his  missionary  banner, 
and  in  a  voice  whose  ring  betokened  a  heavenly  inspiration,  called  upon 
all  true  lovers  of  Jesus  to  rally  for  the  great  conflict. 

Soon  after  the  adjournment  of  the  Association  he  wrote  that  famous 
“Inquiry  into  the  obligations  of  Christians  to  use  means  for  the  conver¬ 
sion  of  the  heathen.”  That  paper  was  like  a  new  revelation  from  the 
skies.  Every  line  was  luminous,  and  from  first  to  last  it  seemed  to  be 
stamped  with  the  signet  of  Heaven’s  approval.  Its  effect  upon  some  of 
his  brethren  was  as  signal  as  their,  first  conversion.  It  was  another 
spiritual  quickening  and  resurrection.  They  saw  the  truth  as  they  had 
never  seen  it  before.  They  heard  a  call  to  duty  that  was  like  the  blast 
from  the  archangel’s  trumpet. 

They  were  the  subjects  of  that  divine  uplifting  which  carries  the  be¬ 
liever  beyond  that  realm  of  fear  and  doubt,  and  fits  him  for  a  hero’s  work 
*  and  a  martyr’s  death.  That  paper  was  the  kindling  of  a  flame,  which 
grew  into  a  mighty  conflagration.  It  was  the  beginning  of  an  illumina¬ 
tion  which  was  destined  to  fill  the  world  with  its  glory. 

At  the  next  meeting  of  the  Nottingham  Association  Carey  entered 
the  pulpit  to  preach  upon  his  favorite  theme.  His  countenance  was 
radiant.  The  people  knew  that  he  had  been  with  God  from  the  glory 
that  lingered  on  his  brow.  His  text  was  from  the  propecy  of  Isaiah, 
that  man  of  the  misty  past,  to  whom  it  was  given  to  see  and  foretell  the 
work  and  triumphs  of  Carey  and  his  co-laborers.  “Enlarge  the  place  of 
thy  tent,  and  let  them  stretch  forth  the  curtains  of  thine  habitations; 
spare  not;  lengthen  thy  cords  and  strengthen  thy  stakes;  for  thou  shalt 
break  forth  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left;  and  thy  seed  shall  inherit 
the  Gentiles,  and  m*ake  the  desolate  cities  to  be  inhabited.” 

Prom  this  vision  of  the  prophet  the  young  preacher  drew  two  lessons, 
which  he  discussed  with  a  fervor  and  eloquence  that  carried  conviction 
to  every  mind  : 


56 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


1.  Expect  great  things  from  God. 

2.  Attempt  great  things  for  God. 

Such  a  sermon  as  he  delivered  there  and  then  would  make  an  epoch 
in  the  life  of  any  people,  of  any  nation,  of  any  continent.  In  all  the  cen¬ 
turies  that  have  passed  since  then  men  have  heard  nothing  comparable 
to  it  in  convincing  and  transforming  power.  In  every  word  of  it  there 
was  the  accent  of  a  conviction  born  of  God.  It  was  the  opening  of  an¬ 
other  trumpet  stop  on  the  grand  organ  of  spiritual  passion.  It  was  a 
miracle  of  sacred  eloquence,  for  in  it  were  the  birth-throes  of  modern 
missions. 

Am  I  not  warranted  in  saying  that  such  preaching  is  a  lost  art?  That 
art,  that  power,  will  not  reappear  until  unbelief  and  cowardice  and  self 
are  dead  in  the  hearts  of  God’s  ministers,  and  they  are  consumed  as 
Carey  was  with  zeal  for  a  lost  world. 

The  feeling  generated  by  that  sermon  crystalized  very  soon  into  “A 
society  among  Baptists  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel  among  the 
heathens.”  That  society  was  formed  in  the  hospitable  home  of  a  Christian 
woman.  ‘‘Woman,  last  at  the  cross  and  first  at  the  sepulchre,”  is  at  the 
beginning,  the  middle,  and  the  end  of  every  great  movement  for  the 
world's  uplifting.  A  German  poet  said: 

“Eve:*y  hair  of  he  •  head  draws  like  a  bell-rope.” 

Bet,  if  my  eyes  do  not  deceive  me;  and  the  missionary  secretaries  and 
the  religions  newspapers  are  not  imposing  upon  my  credulity,  ball-ropes 
are  but  cobwebs  in  comparison  with  the  cable  with  which  the  Baptist 
women  of  the  South  are  drawing  this  Centennial  car. 

That  ‘‘Society  among  the  Baptists  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel 
among  the  heathens”  was  the  real  “beginning  of  modern  missions.”  It 
was  the  first  missionary  body  of  modern  times  to  give  expression  to  the* 
true  Gospel  conception  of  Christian  obligation  and  effort.  That  first 
meeting  of  the  little  parent  society  did  not  adjourn  until  every  member 
of  it  had  made  a  contribution  in  money  to  the  cause  to  which  he  had 
pledged  his  faith  and  fealty.  The  aggregate  of  the  contribution  was 
“thirteen  pounds,  two  shillings,  and  six  pence.”  The  contributors  were 
very  poor,  but  rich  in  faith  and  zeal  for  God. 

Constrained  by  the  example  of  that  little  band  of  Baptists,  and  by 
the  burning  appeals  of  their  eloquent  and  heroic  leader,  other  denomi¬ 
nations  fell  into  line  with  the  movement,  and  soon  the  London  Mission¬ 
ary  Society,  the  Scottish  Missionary  Society,  and  the  Church  Missionary 
Society  were  formed. 

If  William  Carey  had  done  nothing  more  than  conceive  and  inaugu¬ 
rate  that  movement,  he  would  deserve  a  large  and  lofty  place  in  the  es¬ 
teem  and  affection  of  the  Christian  world.  But  to  him  belongs  not  only 
the  distinction  of  originating  the  scheme,  but  the  imperishable  glory  of 


6f  modern  missions. 


57 


leadership  in  the  execution  of  it.  His  battle  cry  was  not  “Go!”  but 
“Follow!”  Coveting  the  experiences,  the  trials,  and  the  triumphs  of  an 
exemplar  in  the  difficult  and  daring  undertaking,  he  said  to  the  little 
band  at  home,  “You  hold  the  rope,  and  I  will  go  down  into  the  pit.” 

Carey  landed  in  Calcutta,  November  11,  1793.  Still  possessed  of  that 
spirit  of  independence  and  self-denial  which  had  characterized  his  youth 
and  young  manhood,  he  refused  support  from  any  source. 

During  the  first  six  months  of  his  life  in  that  city,  where  pagan  iniqui¬ 
ties  were  matched  only  by  the  remorseless  avarice  of  British  traders,  he 
went  through  a  struggle  of  poverty  and  suffering  that  would  have  dis¬ 
heartened  and  crushed  any  one  but  a  moral  athlete. 

He  at  last  succeeded  in  finding  employment  by  which  he  could  make  a 
support  for  himself  and  family.  For  five  years  he  was  in  the  service  of 
a  manufacturer  of  indigo.  During  that  period  he  perfected  his  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  Bengalee  language,  wrote  a  grammar  of  the  same  vernacu¬ 
lar,  learned  Sanscrit,  mastered  the  botany  of  the  country,  founded  a 
church,  and  preached  the  Gospel  throughout  a  district  containing  two 
hundred  villages.  All  this  he  did  at  his  own  cost. 

These  results  he  accomplished  in  spite  of  the  mean  and  despotic  oppo¬ 
sition  of  the  East  India  Company.  Of  all  the  monopolies  that  have 
wronged  and  robbed  men,  and  made  merchandise  of  human  bodies  and 
human  souls,  that  East  India  Company  was  the  most  infamous,  and  the 
most  deserving  of  the  reprobation  of  God  and  man. 

Seeing  no  prospect  for  the  protection  or  perpetuity  of  his  work  in  Cal¬ 
cutta,  Carey  left  it  and  went  ten  miles  away  to  Serampore,  a  Danish  set¬ 
tlement,  and’  began  a  work  under  the  protection  of  a  more  humble  and 
liberal  people.  There  he  was  soon  joined  by  Marshmaii  and  Ward, 
names  that  will  be  forever  historic,  because  of  their  association  with 
Carey  in  untiring  and  heroic  sacrifice  for  the  evangelization  of  India. 
These  three  men  not  only  supported  themselves  and  their  families,  but 
from  first  to  last  contributed  to  the  cause  of  missions  in  India  not  less 
than  $450,000. 

In  that  heathen  country  Carey  spent  forty-one  years  in  unremitting 
toil,  never  once  visiting  his  native  land. 

With  the  assistance  of  his  faithful  co-laborers  he  made  and  published 
the  first  complete  or  partial  translations  of  the  Bible  into  forty  languages 
and  dialects  of  India,  China,  Central  Asia,  and  neighboring  lands,  at  a 
cost  of  $500,000. 

He  established  printing  houses,  paper  mills,  primary  schools,  schools 
for  the  education  of  native  girls  and  women,  colleges  to  train  native  min¬ 
isters  and  to  evangelize  educated  Hindoos,  and  medical  missions.  He 
established  thirty  mission  stations,  translated  the  whole  Bible  into  San¬ 
scrit,  and  opened  the  way  for  Judson’s  great  work  in  Burmah,  which  re¬ 
sulted  in  the  organization  of  American  Baptists  for  foreign  missionary 
work. 


58 


CENTENNIAL  celebration 


Ninety-nine  years  have  rolled  their  suns  away  since  William  Carey 
planted  the  flag  of  the  Gospel  on  the  shore  of  India.  Beneath  that  sa¬ 
cred  ensign  of  redemption  not  less  than  five  hundred  thousand  native 
converts  stand  to-day,  bravely  and  patiently  continuing  the  struggle  so 
wisely  begun  by  the  man  whose  only  ambition  and  purpose  was  to  lead 
lost  men  out  of  the  darkness  of  error  and  sin  into  the  light  and  liberty 
of  the  sons  of  God. 

We  celebrate  to-day  the  beginning  of  modern  missions.  By  modern  mis¬ 
sions  we  mean  missions  among  the  heathen.  I  have  confined  my  remarks 
mainly  to  the  work  of  William  Carey,  because  the  verdict  of  Christendom 
and  the  verdict  of  history  will  ever  be,  that  to  him,  under  God,  belongs  the 
glory  of  laying  the  foundations  of  the  great  and  sacred  enterprise  of 
modern  missions. 

Many  useful  lessons  may  be  learned  from  the  history  which  I  have  but 
briefly  outlined: 

1.  Here  we  see  something  of  the  sublime  possibilities  of  a  single  hu¬ 
man  life  absolutely  consecrated  to  God.  “The  lives  of  such  men  all  re¬ 
mind  us,  we  may  make  our  lives  sublime.” 

2.  Here  we  see  how  seemingly  insuperable  difficulties  may  be  conquered 
by  facing  them  with  a  martyr’s  faith  and  courage. 

3.  Here  we  see  God’s  fidelity  in  fulfilling  his  promises  to  men  who  un¬ 
reservedly  put  themselves  in  His  hands,  and  dare  to  obey  Him  in  the 
presence  of  any  danger. 

4.  Here  we  can  see  how  God  can  and  does  use  the  weak  and  despised 
things  of  this  world  to  confound  and  vanquish  the  mighty. 

5.  Here  we  can  see  how  God’s  work,  begun  in  simple  faith  and  un¬ 
feigned  love,  will  rise  from  feebleness  and  seeming  insignificance  into 
magnificent  strength  and  beauty. 

6.  But  the  thought  with  which  I  am  specially  impressed  has  reference 
to  the  condition  of  the  country. 

Just  before  his  untimely  and  tragic  death,  Abraham  Lincoln  uttered 
these  words,  which  have  passed  into  history:  “As  the  result  of  the  war, 
corporations  have  been  enthroned.  An  era  of  corruption  in  high  places 
will  follow.  The  money  power  of  the  country  will  reign  until  all  the 
wealth  is  aggregated  in  a  few  hands,  and  the  Republic  is  destroyed.” 

If  there  is  in  the  condition  of  our  country  that  which  looks  like  a  fulfill¬ 
ing  of  this  prophecy  it  behooves  every  patriot  do  awake  to  the  danger 
which  threatens  us. 

In  an  American  book,  published  only  a  month  ago,  the  author  says, 
“We  have  reached  a  critical  period  in  our  nation’s  history.  The  dire¬ 
ful  prophecies  made  by  our  enemies  seem  about  to  be  fulfilled.” 

Now,  I  do  not  know  that  these  things  are  true;  but  if  they  are 
true,  we  are  not  without  a  remedy.  It  is  within  the  power  of  the 
churches  of  the  living  God  to  eradicate  the  evils  which  threaten  this 
republic  with  destruction. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


5d 

Let  the  men  and  women  who  call  themselves  Christians  be  Christians 
indeed;  let  them  be  missionaries  in  /ieartand  life,  and  not  merely  in  name; 
let  their  intellectual  gifts  be  given  to  the  study  of  God’s  Gospel,  and  to 
its  dissemination  both  at  home  and  abroad;  let  them  in  faith  and  love 
consecrate  their  money  to  the  cause  for  which  they  have  promised  to 
live,  and,  if  need  be,  to  die;  let  them,  like  Carey,  give  to  God  more  than 
they  keep  for  themselves;  in  other  words,  let  them  seek  first,  not  their 
own  aggrandisement,  but  the  advancement  of  God’s  Kingdom,  and  there 
will  come  into  this  land  of  ours  a  power  before  which  neither  despotism 
nor  lawlessness  can  live;  a  power  that  will  draw  the  rich  and  the  poor 
together  in  mutual  respect  and  sympathy;  a  power  that  will  render  sa¬ 
cred  and  inviolate  the  rights  of  all  classes,  and  preserve  to  us,  our  chil¬ 
dren,  and  our  children’s  children,  the  legacy  of  freedom  and  equality 
purchased  by  the  blood  of  our  fathers. 


f 


60 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


THIRD  DAY. 


Tuesday  Morning,  October  4. 

After  devotional  exercises  Rev.  J.  W.  Weddell,  of  the 
Chicago  Standard,  emphasized  the  point  that  giving  greatly 
benefits  the  giver. 

Prof. ‘H.  H.  Harris  spoke  on  the  Centennial  Fund.  The 
Centennial  should  not  be  used  as  an  occasion  of  boasting,  but 
of  gratitude  to  Odd  for  what  he  has  done  through  our  fathers. 
It  has  been  turned  into  an  occasion  of  raising  money;  giving 
of  mone^  measures  the  amount  of  our  consecration.  The 
Southern  Baptist  host  is  a  host,  an  undeveloped  mine  of  mis¬ 
sionary  possibilities.  We  have  been  doubling  our  contribu¬ 
tions  every  ten  years. 

We  have  undertaken  to  send  one  missionary  for  every  year 
of  this  century.  The  churches  are  adopting  individual  mis¬ 
sionaries.  I  preach  each  Sunday  in  many  languages.  Some, 
people  give  where  they  can  see  the  results.  Why  not  give 
where  you  can  never  see  results  until  you  reach  the  other 
shore? 

THE  PERMANENT  FUND. 

This  permanent  fund  is  not  an  endowment  fund,  the  inter¬ 
est  of  which  is  to  be  used  for  mission  work.  One  brother 
gave  us  some  railroad  bonds  with  the  request  that  we  hold 
the  bonds  artd  use  the  interest  only;  we  would  be  glad  to 
have  some  more.  The  permanent  fund  is  for  permanent 
work,  such  as  printing  of  Bibles,  and  building  chapels.  Bro. 
Z.  C.  Taylor,  of  Bahai,  Brazil,  wants  to  build  ten  or  twelve 
chapels.  For  this  he  will  need  only  about  fifteen  hundred  or 
two  thousand  dollars.  He  will  give  one  hundred  dollars  and 
thereby  stimulate  the  natives  to  give  four  or  five  hundred- 
dollars  more.  We  must  build  American  houses  in  Africa, 
sending  the  timber  from  New  York.  Dr.  Graves  is  spending 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


61 


his  last  years  in  translating  the  Bible  into  the  literary  tongue 
of  China.  The  Foreign  Board  should  publish  this.  We  want 
to  lift  our  people  by  showing  them  what  they  can  do  The 
million  dollars  will  be  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  salva¬ 
tion  of  souls  in  our  midst  as  a  resultant  of  renewed  con¬ 
secration. 

Bro.  W.  D.  Povrell  followed.  I  have  left  my  work  in  Mex¬ 
ico  in  connection  with  this  work.  Brethren,  our  efforts  in 
this  line  are  not  commensurate  with  our  efforts  in  other  lines. 
A  little  over  one  hundred  years  ago  there  were  two  print! ug 
presses  only  in  America.  Now  there  are  thousands. 

When  I  went  to  Mexico  I  had  to  ride  ponies.  Now  the  rail¬ 
roads  run  all  through  the  country.  What  boundless  resources 
have  we!  We  Southern  Baptists  pity  our  English  Baptists 
because  of  their  insignificance.  They  have  already  raised 
$400,000  for  missions. 

We  need  houses  in  Mexico.  Bro.  McCormack  recently 
dedicated  his  house  of  worship,  and  he  is  now  reaching  more 
people  than  ever  before.  Bro.  Goldsmith  is  now  paying  fifty 
dollars  rent  per  mouth.  Two  and  one-half  thousand  would 
build  him  all  the  houses  needed.  We  are  willing  to  help  our¬ 
selves  and  have  organized  a  Foreign  Mission  Board. 

Dr.  I.  T.  Tichenor  spoke  of  the  great  need  of  the  Perma¬ 
nent  Chapel  Fund  in  the  Home  Mission  work. 

Prof.  O.  T.  Mason,  LL.D.,  read  a  paper  on 


THE  RELATION  OF  COMMERCE  TO  MISSIONS. 

APOSTOLIC  CONCEPTION  OP  “ALL  THE  WORLD.” 

4 

When  the  Savior  of  men  delivered  to  his  disciples  the  last  injunction 
to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,  pi’oin- 
ising  them  that  the  Holy  Ghost  should  come  upon  them,  he  said,  “Ye 
shall  be  witnesses  unto  me  both  in  Jerusalem,  and  in  all  Judea,  and  in 
Samaria  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth.” 

It  was  entirely  impracticable  in  that  day  to  obey  Him,  so  far  as  the 
last  paragraph  is  concerned,  but  it  is  absolutely  practicable  now.  There 
is  not  a  man  in  this  world,  nor  a  woman,  nor  a  child,  that  has  not  been 
many  times  in  touch  with  the  processes  and  products  of  our  Christian 
civilization,  not  one  that  could  not  be  reached  with  that  message  of 
Divine  love. 


62 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


You  can  imagine  the  childishness  and  the  vagueness,  in  the  minds  of 
the  disciples,  of  that  term  “all  the  world.”  They  did  not  know  that 
the  earth  is  round.  They  supposed  that  it  was  practically  bounded  by 
an  ocean  whose  shores  were  not  much  further  away  than  the  longest 
journeys  made  by  Jews  in  coming  to  the  passover.  The  straits  of  Bab  el 
Mandeb  on  the  south,  the  straits  of  Gibraltar  on  the  west,  the  Black 
Sea  on  the  north,  and  the  borders  of  India  on  the'east  were  the  extremi¬ 
ties  of  “all  the  world.”  They  did  not  know  there  was  a  great  Mongo¬ 
lian  race,  nor  much  of  true  Africa.  Northern  Europe  was  a  blank  on 
their  maps.  And  as  for  Malayans,  or  Australians,  or  Davidians,  or  Poly¬ 
nesians,  or  Americans,  there  was  not  the  faintest  suspicion  of  their  ex¬ 
istence. 

EARLIEST  WORLD  COMMERCE. 

“The  earliest  highway  of  commerce  was  from  India  through  the  Per¬ 
sian  Gulf,  up  the  Euphrates  to  the  Mediterranean;  and  carpets  and 
precious  stones  were  then,  as  now,  carried  over  this  route.  Explorations 
and  surveys  have  been  recently  made  along  this  ‘our  future  highway  to 
India.’  Caravans  brought  spices  from  Arabia  and  rich  stuffs  from  Baby¬ 
lon  and  Nineveh  to  the  shores  of  the  Red  Sea.  Solomon  made  a  navy  of 
ships  -and  Hiram  sent  in  the  navy  his  ‘Servants,  shipmen  that  had  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  sea,  and  they  brought  gold  from  Ophir,  great  plenty  of  almug 
trees  and  precious  stones.’ 

“Tyre  and  Sidon  founded  colonies  on  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean, 
enslaving  the  Spaniards,  compelling  them  to  work  the  mines  of  gold  and 
silver  already  opened  in  Spain.  Their  ships  sailed  through  the  Medi¬ 
terranean  by  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  turning 
northward  to  England  for  tin  and  copper,  and  on  into  the  Baltic  for  fur 
and  amber;  venturing  also  southward  along  the  western  coast  of  Africa. 
The  Carthaginians  inherited  the  trade  of  Tyre  and  Sidon,  and,  in  addi¬ 
tion,  opened  highways  to  Egypt  and  into  the  interior  of  Africa,  barter¬ 
ing  their  wares  in  Egypt  for  corn  and  grain,  and  in  Africa  for  ivory, 
gems  and  slaves.  They  planted  colonies  in  Africa  and  Sicily,  and  for  a 
time  were  successful  rivals  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  rule  of  the  ocean 
transferred  from  Asia  to  Africa  remained  there  for  a  short  time,  for  the 
day  of  Europe  came  with  the  rise  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  Greeks 
founded  colonies  in  Asia  Minor,  Sicily  and  Italy.  •  Under  Pyrrhus  their 
armies  were  defeated  by  the  Romans  and  their  colonies  captured.  De¬ 
prived  of  these,  her  power  rapidly  declined  and  she  became  a  Roman 
province.”  Hubbard,  Nat.  Geog.  Magazine,  Washington,  1892,  p.  1-3. 

This  vast  Roman  empire  was  in  the  act  of  solidifying  the  activities  of 
the  commercial  nations,  on  the  day  when  our  Savior  sent  his  disciples  to 
preach  his  gospel  to  “all  the  world.”  The  methods  of  conveyance  were 
being  prepared  while  the  message  was  being  delivered. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


63 


TRAVELING  RESOURCES  OF  THE  APOSTLES. 

This  ever-widening- circle  of  injunction,  “From  Jerusalem  to  Judea, 
from  Judea  to  Samaria,  from  Samaria  to  all  the  world,”  did  not  involve 
in  their  imaginations  any  extraordinary  effort  in  the  last  progress  of 
this  journeying. 

Supposing  these  disciples  had  been  divinely  inspired  with  geographic 
knowledge,  with  additional  instruction  concerning  the  nationalities,  the 
races  and  the  languages  of  the  earth,  it  would  have  done  them  no  good. 
There  were  insurmountable  difficulties  in  their  way — vast  deserts,  high 
mountains,  rivers,  seas,  oceans,  climates,  perils  by  land,  perils  on  the 
deep,  that  stood  as  a  menace  even  to  the  extension  of  traffic  at  that  time 
and  continued  thus  for  fifteen  hundred  years. 

They  had  poor  means  of  getting  to  those  they  had  heard  of.  They 
could  walk  ten  miles  a  day  carrying  their  own  luggage.  Camels  and 
asses  and  horses  would  bear  them  a  little  further,  if  not  too  heavily 
laden  and  provided  the  drivers  were  well  paid.  Some  of  the  journeys 
they  could  make  in  open  boats  propelled  by  oars  or  by  lateen  sails,  and, 
in  these,  twenty  or  thirty  miles  a  day  wou||^  be  a  prosperous  journey. 
The  Roman  roads  afforded  highways  for  lumbering  vehicles  that  would 
not  undertake  over  twenty  miles  a  day,  but  the  post  conveyances  would 
accomplish  twice  that  distance.  They  could  also  send  messages  and  dis¬ 
patches  by  couriers,  as  was  the  Apostles’  custom  for  short  distances. 

PAUL  THE  COLUMBUS  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

If  we  are  to  believe  all  the  legends  that  come  down  to  us,  the  twelve 
apostles  actually  outstripped  this  gradually  world-embracing  commerce 
and  preached  the  Gospel,  even  in  America,  during  the  first  century. 
But  the  Apostle  Paul  was  the  Columbus  of  the  early  Christian  Church, 
who,  going  aside  from  the  routes  pursued  by  his  apostolic  predecessors, 
turned  his  face  Westward ‘and  traversed  Europe  as  far  as  Rome,  follow¬ 
ing  by  land  and  by  sea  the  currents  of  trade.  Thrice  he  suffered  ship¬ 
wreck,  a  night  and  a  day  he  had  been  in  the  deep.  In  journeyings  often, 
in  perils  in  water,  in  perils  of  robbers,  in  perils  by  the  heathen,  in 
perils  in  the  city,  in  perils  in  the  wilderness. 

EARLY  STANDARD  TIME. 

The  progress  of  commerce  is  marked  by  the  improvements  of  time¬ 
keeping  apparatus;  but  in  the  apostolic  days  there  were  no  clocks,  nor 
compasses.  Nights  were  divided  into  watches  and  days  into  hours. 
After  that,  it  was  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  the  flashing  of  a  weaver’s 
shuttle,  or  an  indefinite  allusion  to  something  very  brief.  The  unit  of 
the  timekeeper  was  the  hour.  In  these  days  the  unit  is  no  longer  the 
minute  even,  but  it  is  the  second,  and  many  of  the  finer  observations  re¬ 
quire  th§  accurate  recording  of  a  hundred  thousandth  of  a  second.  If 


64 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


we,  in  our  mission  work  of  to-day,  keep  to  those  old  tardy  standards, 
don’t  be  astonished  if  we  be  found  often  late  on  the  road.  Old  ways  of 
working  had  their  day.  ‘‘They  had  their  day  and  ceased  to  be.” 

THE  FIRST  MESSAGES. 

Finally,  the  apostles  had  little  to  carry  except  the  message  on  their 
lips.  The  lives  of  Christ  were  not  written  until  thirty  years  after  the 
ascension  and  the  last  book  of  the  New^estament  until  more  than  sixty 
y^ars.  When  these  precious  documents  were  gotten  together,  more 
than  a  hundred  years  had  revolved  since  the  Great  Commission.  The 
Old  Testament  in  their  hands,  and  the  words  of  the  Lord  in  their 
mouths,  that  was  the  ammunition  of  the  Christian  warrior — that  was 
the  Gospel  they  were  bearing  to  every  creature,  using  the  tardy  methods 
of  their  day  to  reach  the  ends  of  the  world. 

MEANING  OF  “ALL  THE  WORLD”  NOW. 

I  have  said  there  is  no  human  being  that  medium  industry  and  trade 
has  not  reached.  After  ha#idling  many  thousands  of  the  tools  and  the 
industrial  products  of  savage  peoples  in  the  remotest  parts  of  the  world, 
after  examining  the  museums  of  the  old  world  and  the  new,  you  will  be 
astonished  to  see  how  iron  and  other  metals  have  completely  taken  the 
place  of  stone.  The  whale  ships  have  taught  the  Arctic  people  all  to 
use  steel  knives  and  even  guns,  and  everything  that  comes  from  that 
quarter  is  rivited  or  bladed  or  hafted  with  iron  or  steel.  There  is  no 
tribe  of  aborigines  anywhere  in  America  that  have  not  seen  the  white 
man— no  man  to  whom  the  church  could  not  send  a  Bible  if  she  wished. 

Every  river  in  Northern  Asia  has  borne  on  its  current  Russian  trade 
on  which  have  breathed  disciples  of  Christ.  Into  Central  Asia,  the 
country  of  the  Grand  Lama,  said  to  he  locked  against  the  European,  a 
stream  of  trade  and  travel  has  penetrated  and  has  been  flowing  from 
the  days  of  Marco  Polo.  Southern  Asia  is  now  the  battleground  of 
European  nationalities,  on  which  they  are  contending  for  the  commerce. 
English  and  French  and  German  and  Portuguese  and  American  goods 
are  sold  in  every  village  in  Africa — among  the  true  negroes  of  the  Sou¬ 
dan,  among  the  great  Bantre  Stock  south  of  that,  and  even  among  the 
Hottentots  and  Bushmen  of  the  Cape.  And  every  bale  of  these  goods 
has  been  handled  over  and  over  again  by  Christian  men  and  women. 

The  Malayan  peoples,  the  Papuans  and  other  Oceanic  negroes,  the 
Australians  and  the  brown  Polynesians,  for  one  hundred  years  at  least, 
have  bartered  the  rich  productions  of  their  islands  for  the  manufactures 
of  Christian  lands.  There  is  no  desert,  no  mountain  fastness,  no  island 
in  the  sea  too  far  away,  too  rugged,  too  desolate  to  deter  the  intrusion 
of  trade.  Men  coat  the  inside  of  rum  barrels  to  stop  leakage,  the  pene¬ 
trating  power  of  gunpowder  will  carry  a  rifle  projectile  through  twenty 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


65 


inches  of  steel.  But  these  two  instruments  for  destroying  the  bodies 
and  the  souls  of  men,  gunpowder  and  rum,  have  penetrated  to  the  re¬ 
motest  corners  of  the  earth  and  taught  man  the  shortest  road  to  death 
and  moral  ruin. 

The  beads  with  which  the  American  aborigines  have  adorned  them¬ 
selves  for  three  hundred  years  or  more  were  made  in  Venice,  under  the 
shadow  of  St.  Marks,  with  its  boasted  relics  of  St.  Theodore  and  of  the 
author  of  the  Second  Gospel.  The  brass  wire  and  cotton  stuffs  of  the 
African  trade  were  made  in  Marohester  and  Birmingham  and  Leeds  and 
Sheffield.  While  the  cotton  fibre  itself  was  chiefly  reared  in  the  South¬ 
ern  States  of  our  Union.  It  would  not  be  unsafe  to  say  that  if  you 
were  to  follow  the  cotton  threads  spun  from  the  Southern  staple  of  the 
United  States  they  would  lead  you  to  every  home,  every  family,  every 
individual  of  our  race.  It  may  be  that  God  has  purposely  laid  this  on 
you.  These  wonderfully  delicate  fibres,  raised  by  your  own  hands,  at 
your  own  doorsides,  follow  them  for  one  moment.  They  would  lead  you 
first  to  all  of  our  own  seaports  and  manufacturing  towns,  then  to  Liver¬ 
pool  and  Manchester  and  Leeds,  or  to  the  factory  cities  of  the  Continent 
of  Europe.  Then  they  take  up  their  wandering  journeys.  Keep  your 
hold  on  them,  your  prayers  at  least  may  follow  them  now  to  the  Polar 
Regions,  where  the  unfortunate  Greely  lay  at  the  point  of  death  shielded 
only  by  a  cotton  tent;  now  with  Nordenskjold  and  his  brave  comrades  of  the 
Vega  with  sails  of  Southern  cotton  along  the  northern  shores  of  Europe 
and  Asia  to  Behring  Sea;  now,  this  very  dao  with  the  intrepid  Rockhill,  in 
the  heart  of  Asia,  making  his  way  to  the  capital  of  the  Grand  Lama; 
now  with  the  energetic  and  avaricious  peddlers  and  traders  among  the 
aborigines  of  both  continents.  In  all  your  wanderings  with  these  won¬ 
derful  little  threads  of  your  own  rearing,  you  would  leave  no  land  or 
water  unexplored.  If  you  were  to  take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  which  I 
understand  to  mean  the  earliest  sunbeams,  and  travel  with  the  sun  the 
live  long  day,  seeing  all  he  sees,  your  eyes  would  never  once  be  away 
from  the  products  of  the  fields  where  most  of  you  have  spent  your  whole 
lives.  If  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention  would  put  the  Bible  wherever 
Southern  Cotton  had  gone,  the  world  would  be  evangelized. 

PROGRESS  OP  A  GREAT  IDEA. 

How  slowly  and  yet  how  grandly  has  this  word  “all”  unfolded  itself 
upon  the  comprehensions  of  men.  Moses  thought  of  it  as  the  panorama 
of  creation  was  rolled  past  his  mental  eye.  All  peoples,  high  and  low  in 
culture,  have  had  their  cosmogonies  and  gathered  into  an  organic  sys¬ 
tem  all  worlds  and  all  things  as  they  comprehended  them.  David  sought 
to  grasp  it  when  he  considered  the  Heavens  to  be  the  work  of  God’s 
fingers.  John  beheld  the  glorified  Savior  as  the  one  by  whom  all  things 
were  made  and  without  whom  was  not  anything  made  that  was  made. 
These  were  happy  inspirations.  In  all  the  ages  our  race,  after  culti- 


66 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


vating-  acquaintance  with  the  discrete  phenomena  around  them,  has 
been  all  the  while  co-ordinating  them,  making  them  organic,  reading 
life  into  them. 

Man  has  learned  by  degrees  to  comprehend  all  things  as  parts  of  a 
single  mechanism.  Sir  Isaac  Newton  and  Kepler  conceived  all  objects 
and  all  worlds  to  be  held  by  universal  gravitation.  And  in  our  century, 
von  Baer  and  Humboldt  held  that  the  world,  in  all  its  forces  and  ma¬ 
terials,  is  an  integrated  cosmos.  Anyone  who  is  the  least  familiar  with 
the  progress  of  philosophy  will  recall  Tkat  since  the  dawn  of  written 
history  the  thoughts  of  men  were  tending  to  this  unification.  Shortly 
after  this  first  effort  at  comprehensive  unity  Mayer,  Rumford  and  Joule 
invented  the  methods  of  demonstrating  the  oneness  of  physical  forces, 
the  conservation  of  energy.  Wollaston,  Kirchoff  and  Bunsen  devised 
the  delicate  apparatus  to  prove  the  chemical  identity  of  all  worlds. 
Lamarck,  Geoffroy  St.  Hilaire  and  Darwin  taught  the  consanguinity  of 
all  living  beings.  Helmholtz  and  Meyer  co-ordinated  nervous  excita¬ 
tion  with  mental  activity.  Comte  and  Spencer  asserted  the  unity  of  all 
sensible  phenomena.  Newton,  Leibnitz  and  Hamilton  projected  their 
minds  beyond  phenomena  dnd  invented  mathematics  of  four  or  more  di¬ 
mensions,  conceiving  of  worlds  and  systems  that  under  the  present  order 
of  nature  can  have  no  objective  reality.  Over  all  this,  into  many  souls 
have  come  notions  of  infinite  space  and  time  and  causation  and  person¬ 
ality.  The  idea  of  limitation  to  thought  or  achievement  no  longer  enters 
the  imagination.  The  depth  of  the  sea,  the  distances  of  the  stars,  the 
concealment  of  the  earth’s  treasures,  the  minuteness  of  the  springs  of 
life  and  s^nse,  the  multiplicity  and  complicity  of  phenomena  are  only  so 
many  incitements  to  a  wider,  deeper,  loftier  comprehension  of  that  Holy 
Spirit  who  was  in  all  ages  to  accompany  the  church,  and  who  was  to  be 
the  perpetual  reservoir  of  power  in  all  lands  and  ages. 

GREAT  IDEAS  SLOWLY  ADOPTED  BY  THE  PEOPLE. 

After  the  exalted  minds  had  come  little  by  little  to  comprehend  these 
meanings  of  the  word  “all,”  how  slow  the  people  were  in  coming  up 
with  them.  First  the  universities,  then  the  colleges,  then  the  schools, 
then  people  of  common  intelligence;  but  behind  them,  always,  was  a 
vast  herd  that  comprehended  nothing. 

It  almost  broke  the  Savior’s  heart  when  he  was  on  earth  that  his 
Apostles  were  so  slow  of  heart  to  believe. 

The  same  is  true  now  of  those  of  Christ’s  disciples  who  read  his  in¬ 
junction  to  evangelize  the  whole  world.  The  Catholic  missions  in  the 
sixteenth,  seventeenth,  and  eighteenth  centuries  were  characterized 
with  praiseworthy  zeal,  but  their  motive  was  propagandism.  One  hun¬ 
dred  years  ago  Carey  caught  a  glimpse  of  their  import,  and  then  they 
seized  a  few  other  noble  Protestant  minds.  Seventy-five  years  ago  they 
were  felt  in  our  own  country  by  a  UtUe  band  of  enlightened  souls.  Y ou 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


67 


who  are  before  me  feel  their  momentous  import  now.  A  small  percent¬ 
age  of  your  people  are  awaking  to  their  significance.  But  in  all  our 
churches  the  vast  throng  are  still  living  in  the  folk-lore  period  of 
Christianity. 

Think  of  this  for  one  moment,  in  passing.  The  success  of  commerce 
is  owing  to  the  fact  that  so  many  are  eagerly  engaged  in  it,  from  the 
merchant  prince  down  to  the  street  fakir.  Matthew  Arnold  says, 
“Human  progress  consists  in.t|j^  continued  increase  in  the  number  of 
those  who,  ceasing  to  live  the  ahimal  life  alone  and  to  feel  the  pleasures 
of  sense  only,  cdme  to  participate  in  the  intellectual  life  also  and  to  find 
enjoyment  in  the  things  of  mind. 

The  awakening  of  commerce  was  the  awakening  of  great  masses  of 
peoples  to  participate  in  its  activities.  The  thing  to  pray  for  in  the 
church  is  a  like  great  moving  of  all  Christ’s  followers  and  an  uplifting 
of  the  masses  to  participate  in  the  spiritual  life  and  find  enjoyment  in 
the  things  of  the  soul. 

DRIFTING  ABOUT  IN  THE  EDDIES. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  conservative  conduct  of  the  church  as  a 
whole,  the  following  incident  will  suffice: 

On  the  22d  of  June  the  steamer  Trave  ran  into  the  schooner  Taylor 
five  hundred  miles  east  of  New  York  City  and  broke  her  in  two.  The 
stern  drifted  northward  and  the  bow  southward,  the  former  landing  on 
August  3d  near  Portland,  Maine;  the  latter,  when  last  seen,  was  just  off 
Cape  Henlopen,  Delaware.  Neither  portion  has  at  any  time  gotten  into 
the  Gulf  Stream,  but  both  have  been  driven  by  the  wind  and  tossed,  the 
stern  probably  following  the  cold  southerly  current  between  our  coast 
and  Gulf  Stream,  making  its  way  toward  the  point  where  Columbus 
landed.  I  mention  this  incident  in  order  to  throw  the  following  account 
into  bolder  relief. 

THE  GREAT  OCEANIC  STREAM, 

In  the  year  1890,  the  hydrographer  of  the  United  States  Navy  caused 
to  be  thrown  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  over  one  hundred  bottles  in  which 
letters  were  enclosed,  asking  the  finder  to  write  the  date  and  place  of 
finding  on  the  same  sheet  and  enclose  the  paper  to  the  Navy  Department 
in  Washington.  A  great  many  of  these  bottles  were  cast  overboard  op¬ 
posite  the  coast  of  Spain  and  of  West  Africa,  and  every  one  of  them 
landed  in  the  little  Antilles,  and  some  of  them  on  Watlings  Island  or 
Guanahani  or  San  Salvador.  They  were  carried  to  the  place  of  Colum¬ 
bus’  landing  by  a  stream  flowing  in  the  ocean  since  the  Tertiary  Age. 

It  was  the  same  stream  that  insensibly  wafted  the  little  fleet  of  Colum¬ 
bus  to  the  New  World.  Long  before  his  day  Phoenecians  and  Romans 
and  Spaniards  had  ventured  beyond  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  had  skirted 
the  coast  of  the  Dark  Contineht,  to  the  Maderia,  the  Canaries,  the  Cape 


68 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


Verde  Islands;  they  had  often  looked  with  anxious  eyes  to  the  west  and 
wondered  what  lay  beyond.  The  stream  whispered  unto  every  one  of 
them,  “Come  into  my  current,  come  into  my  current,  and  I  will  show 
you  a  new  continent,”  but  they  heeded  it  not.  When  the  Venetian  trav¬ 
eler  and  his  successors  had  brought  back  overland  fresh  news  of  Cipango 
and  India,  then  it  was  Columbus  sailed  away  for  gold  on  this  very  stream 
and  knew  it  not. 

When  men  first  looked  out  upon  thi^sea  bounded  by  no  shore  and 
upon  vast  land  steppes  and  deserts  to  which  there  seemed  to  be  no  limit, 
they  stood  affrighted.  Each  improvement  in  the  art  of  navigation,  each 
invention  of  better  conveyance  and  transportation  gave  them  confidence 
and  turned  their  stuperstition  into  boldness  first  and  then  into  hope. 
One  hundred  years  ago  the  Protestant  world  stood  paralized  in  the 
presence  of  the  mission  cause.  To-day,  with  some  boldness  they  venture 
forth  upon  this  inviting  sea,  to-morrow  they  will  speed  their  ships  and 
caravans  to  occupy  the  earth. 

So,  from  the  Ascension  morning  began  to  blow  over  the  “all  the 
world”  the  breath  of  the  Comforter.  The  currents  have  been  flowing, 
flowing,  flowing  ’round  the  world  and  returning  into  themselves.  The 
whole  earth  is  filled  with  His  glory,  though  men  knew  it  not.  Lured 
by  Columbus’  love  of  gold,  men  have  followed  the  streams  of  Providence 
to  the  sources  of  all  material  wealth  and  to  the  humblest  consumer  of  in¬ 
dustrial  products.  There  is  also  a  world-encircling  river  whose  stream 
will  make  glad  the  city  of  our  God.  Oh,  friends,  launch  now  upon  that 
blessed  stream.  How  long  already  have  men  hugged  the  shores.  Turn 
now  on  this  very  quadro-centennial  of  Columbus’  act  of  faith  and  trust 
the  Spirit’s  guidance. 

MAGNITUDE  OP  THE  WORLD'S  COMMERCE. 

Let  us  look  for  one  moment  at  the  magnitude  of  the  world’s  commer¬ 
cial  activity.  The  bountiful  storehouse  of  God  yields  its  diversified 
productions  in  the  three  kingdoms  of  nature — mineral,  vegetal,  animal, 
— to  supply  the  wants  of  our  race.  The  exploitation  of  these  resources 
is  the  primary  industry  of  men.  The  amount  of  coal  and  metallic  pro¬ 
duct  each  year  is  counted  by  billions  of  tons.  The  secret  places  of  the 
earth  yield  their  treasure,  the  lands  their  harvests  of  food,  fibres,  and 
woods,  the  seas  their  products  by  thousands  of  millions  of  tons. 

The  muscular  power  of  man  and  of  beasts,  the  motive  power  of  water 
and  wind  and  steam  and  electricity  used  up  in  the  manufacture  of  this 
product  are  gauged  by  billions  of  horse-power.  The  value  added  by 
these  mechanical  transformations  exceed  many  times  the  cost  of  the  raw 
material,  and  all  the  time  that  this  ransacking  of  the  earth  is  going  on 
and  these  factory  wheels  are  spinning  round,  the  stream  of  traffic  is 
bearing  it  all  along  on  the  world’s  highways.  Not  satisfied  with 
these,  men  have  devised  artificial  highways.  They  would  flood  the 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


69 


Caspian  Sea,  the  Dead  Sea,  the  Sahara  Desert.  They  have  opened  the 
Suez  Canal,  and  are  projecting  a  railroad  from  the  Mediterranean  to 
Bombay.  The  Russians  have  already  daily  communication  between  St. 
Petersburg  and  the  Pacific  Ocean.  On  our  own  continent,  the  Canadian 
Pacific,  the  Northern  Pacific,  the  Central  Pacific,  the  Southern  Pacific, 
three  canals  across  the  Isthmus  projected,  and  a  railroad  to  extend  the 
whole  length  of  the  continent.  North  and  South,  supply  the  missing 
links  in  our  globe-encircling  network.  The  transportation  of  all  this 
material  to  these  routes  on  human  backs  and  friendly  beasts  and  wagons 
and  sledges  begin  the  journey  and  then  the  trains  and  ships  take  up  the 
ceaseless  round  involving  billions  of  dollars  more.  The  exchange  of 
things  means  the  exchange  of  money,  but  all  the  coin  in  the  world 
would  not  transact  the  business  of  the  world  one  hour  in  a  year.  Hence, 
letters  of  credit  and  international  comit  and  drafts  and  checks  circulate 
everywhere  to  the  amount  of  trillions  of  dollars.  Mails,  newspapers, 
advertising,  expositions,  telegraphs,  telephones,  commercial  agents, 
tariffs,  revenues,  monopolies,  bankruptcies,  financial  stress — these  are 
the  things  that  occupy  every  day  the  nervous  energies  of  men  and  dis¬ 
turb  their  dreams  at  night. 

On  this  stream  of  commerce  ar5  also  borne  the  ideas,  the  arts,  the 
social  life,  the  culture  of  mankind.  Through  it  the  world  is  becoming 
one.  Hundreds  of  little  tribes  and  tongues  shrinking  away  in  the  eddies 
of  history  will  soon  be  lost  forever.  The  business  of  the  world  is  one. 
The  language  of  the  world  is  practically  one.  The  science  of  the  world 
is  one.  (The  Japanese  name  all  their  minerals  and  plants  and  animals 
with  the  Greek  binomial  nomenclature.)  Governments  are  borrowing 
and  interchanging  methods.  One  system  of  clocks  are  now  running  the 
world  over.  The  Christian  era  is  the  world’s  calendar.  The  metric  or 
decimal  system  will  soon  prevail  universally.  The  nations  are  moving 
toward  universal  peace,  all  because  these  uniformities  are  in  accordance 
with  the  best  interests  of  trade.  Those  nations  that  are  not  so  moving 
will  not  survive  long,  while  those  that  are  will  form  a  constantly  grow¬ 
ing  family  of  nations. 

Following  the  routes  of  this  universal  trade,  it  took  Dr.  Mabie,  Secre¬ 
tary  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Union,  only  eight  months  to 
make  a  journey  of  visitation  around  the  world  in  the  year  1891.  Carey  was 
five  months  in  getting  to  India,  and  Judson  seven  months  in  reaching 
Rangoon.  A  letter  from  Boston  will  reach  Dr.  Clough  in  thirty  days, 
and  there  is  no  difficulty  in  sending  telegrams  to  him  as  to  other  mis¬ 
sionaries  in  Asia.  The  salaries  are  supplied  through  the  regular  bills 
of  exchange  and  it  is  easier  to  pay  many  of  them  than  it  is  to  settle  a 
debt  by  mail  from  this  city,  in  Louisville,  to  some  towns  in  Kentucky  not 
far  away. 


70 


Centennial  Celebration 


THE  NEWSPAPER. 

In  out  of  the  way  places  men  and  women  indulge  in  silly  neighborhood 
gossip;  but  the  reading  public  indulge  in  “world  gossip.” 

“The  great  metropolitan  newspapers  addressing  an  audience  of  mil¬ 
lions  each  morning,  sending  out  expeditions  into  the  remotest  corners  of 
the  world,  exploring  unknown  seas  and  climbing  hitherto  inaccessible 
mountains,  dictating  to  presidents  and  bullying  statesmen,  foretelling 
news  so  accurately  as  almost  to  compel  the  vindication  of  its  predictions; 
delving  into  the  inmost  heart  of  man  and  woman  to  pluck  therefrom  a 
secret  dearer  than  life  itself;  invading  and  desecrating  the  sanctity  of 
the  fireside  and  violating  all  that  the  family  and  the  individual  hold 
dear,  to  detect  crime  and  insure  its  punishment;  to  pursue  malefaction 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  law;  to  annihilate  space  and  make  all  the  differ¬ 
ence  of  time  in  the  world  as  nothing— the  great  marvel  of  the  intellec¬ 
tual  and  material  powers  of  man  at  the  period  of  their  highest  develop¬ 
ment.”  J.  A.  Cockerill,  Cosmopolitan,  N.  Y.,  October,  1892,  695. 

ALL  THINGS  TO  ALL  MEN. 

This  commerce,  of  which  we  have  been  speaking,  is  so  wisely  admin¬ 
istered,  so  full  of  expedients.  It  does  not  send  to  any  people  the  things 
they  do  not  need  and  even  caters  to  their  idiosyncrasies,  becoming  all 
things  to  all  men.  I  am  told  by  eminent  explorers  of  the  Congo  that  so 
fastidious  are  the  negroes  in  regard  to  their  tastes  that  even  a  slight 
difference  in  the  shade  of  heads  has  consigned  the  venturer  to  a  total 
loss  of  his  goods.  The  great  success  of  missions,  likewise,  in  some  places 
and  among  some  peoples,  and  the  great  failure  in  others  surely  cannot 
be  the  fault  of  the  divine  Comforter,  nor  yet  of  the  missionary  as  regards 
his  zeal  or  motives.  The  cause  lies  in  the  fact  that  we  have  not  gone  to 
school  to  the  children  of  this  world,  that  we  have  not  studied  ethnology 
in  all  its  branches  and  have  sought  to  clothe  every  message  everywhere 
in  the  same  garb. 

COMMERCE  AN  ORGANIZED  ACTIVITY. 

Another  feature  of  commercial  success,  demanding  our  closest  study, 
is  its  wise  system  of  centres  of  force  and  activity.  The  organization  of 
the  commercial  forces  of  the  world  about  definite  centres  is  not  a  matter 
of  chance,  but  an  example  of  the  universal  law  of  the  mutual  alliance  of 
spiritual  and  natural  forces.  If  on  a  terrestrial  globe  you  were  to  put 
one  point  of  a  pair  of  dividers  upon  the  city  of  London  and  with  the 
other  point  were  to  mark  off  a  hemisphere,  you  would  include  therein 
nearly  all  the  land  surface  of  the  earth  of  any  value,  save  Australia.  In 
other  words,  London  is  the  centre  of  the  land  surface  of  the  earth,  of  the 
commercial,  manufacturing,  monetary  world.  Upon  a  good  map,  show¬ 
ing  all  the  trunk  lines  of  railroads  or  the  main  steamship  routes,  or  the 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 

submarine  cables  or  the  postal  system,  or  the  monetary  exchanges,  one 
is  reminded  of  the  ganglionic  centres  of  the  nervous  system. 

As  an  example  of  a  systematic  effort  to  put  all  the  individuals  of  the 
earth  who  are  engaged  in  the  same  work  in  touch,  by  the  speediest  and 
most  efficient  apparatus.  Professor  Henry’s  interpretation  of  the  Smith- 
son  bequest  is  instructive.  The  will  reads,  “I  give  to  the  United  States 
the  residue  of  my  estate  to  found  in  the  city  of  Washington  an  establish¬ 
ment  to  be  called  the  Smithsonian  Institution  for  the  increase  and  diffu¬ 
sion  of  knowledge  among  men.”  Henry  at  once  conceived  the  idea  of 
organizing  all  institutions,  all  libraries,  all  museums,  all  societies,  all 
lonely  workers  into  a  solid  brotherhood  with  means  of  easy  and  unex- 
pensive  intercommunication.  And  this  is  done.  Any  student  of  science 
is  in  possession  of  the  means  of  speaking  to  his  brother  on  the  other  side 
of  the  earth  without  a  penny  of  cost.  There  are  many  who  do  not  know 
of  this  blessed  agency,  many  who  do  not  avail  themselves  of  it.  But 
that  is  because  they  are  not  in  that  wondrous  stream  whose  currents 
move  around  the  world.  All  this  interchange  of  thought  and  of  the 
material  results  of  labor  is  helped  by  the  consciousness  of  every  man  en¬ 
gaged  that  he  is  a  part  of  it  and  every  coterie  of  learned  men  becomes 
a  new  centre  of  propagation. 

Par  be  it  from  me  to  criticise  the  methods  of  the  fathers.  If  the  next 
century  witnesses  so  much  progress  in  organic  integration  and  growth 
as  the  last  has  witnessed  in  differentiation  and  diffusion  the  Protestant 
churches  will  have  causes  of  joy.  But  why  wait  one  moment.  Our  mis¬ 
sionaries  do  not  know  one  another’s  work.  The  church  does  not  know 
the  missionaries.  Connections  have  never  been  established  in  some 
places,  in  others  they  have  been  broken  down.  The  circulation  of  blood 
from  heart  to  members,  from  members  back  to  heart,  is  not  free  and 
vitalizing.  Our  next  step,  it  seems  to  me,  should  be  in  the  direction  of 
more  lively  fellowship. 

THE  ETHICAL  CODES  OP  COMMERCE. 

The  questionable  morality  of  much  of  the  world’s  trade  has  sorely  put 
back  the  progress  of  religion  in  the  world.  The  millennium  has  not  yet 
dawned  on  the  commerce  of  nations  and  much  of  it  does  not  make  for 
righteousness,  but  it  is  getting  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  golden  rule. 
Piracy  has  been  swept  from  the  seas.  Christian  nations  are  breaking  up 
the  slave  trade  in  Africa.  Highway  robbery  and  wanton  destruction  of 
wealth  are  remanded  to  the  frontier  and  society  is  outraged  by  their  per¬ 
petration.  There  are  great  evils  remaining  still,  but  good  honest  people 
and  religious  people  countenance  them  and  are  supported  by  them  im¬ 
mediately  or  remotely,  and  so  long  as  that  exists  their  day  of  judgment 
is  far  off.  The  devoted  missionary  often  finds  his  ground  pre-empted 
by  the  offscourings  of  his  own  race. 

The  thorough  Christianization  of  the  world’s  commerce  must  be  a 


72 


CliNTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


work  of  time.  If  the  whole  business  world  were  to  submit  itself  this 
moment  to  the  sole  g-uidance  of  this  universal  Spirit  of  holiness,  the  sys¬ 
tem  of  world’s  traffic  which  even  now  turns  private  vices ’into  public 
benefits  would  be  paralyzed.  Nearly  two  hundred  years  ago  Maunde- 
ville  wrote: 

“T’  enjoy  the  World’s  Conveniences, 

Be  famed  in  “War,  yet  live  in  Ease 
Without  great  vices,  is  a  vain 
Eutopia  seated  in  the  Brain. 

Pra\id,  Luxury  and  Pride  must  live, 

Whilst  we  the  Benefits  receive.” 

[The  Fable  of  the  Bees,  London,  1724,  Tonson,  p.  23.] 

In  its  present  complex  moral  state  the  world’s  business  is  likened  unto 
a  man  which  sowed  good  seed  in  his  field.  But  while  men  slept,  his 
enemy  came  and  sowed  tares  among  the  wheat  and  went  his  way.  But 
when  the  blade  was  sprung  up  and  brought  forth  fruit,  then  appeared  the 
tares  also.  So  the  servants  of  the  householder  came  and  said  unto  him: 
Sir,  didst  thou  not  sow  good  seed  in  thy  field?  from  whence  then  hath  it 
tares?  He  said  unto  them.  An  enemy  hath  done  this.  The  servants  said 
unto  him.  Wilt  thou  then  that  we  go  and  gather  them  up?  But  he  said, 
Nay;  lest  while  ye  gather  up  the  tares,  ye  root  up  also  the  wheat  with 
them.  Let  both  grow  together  until  the  harvest;  and  in  the  time  of 
harvest  I  will  say  unto  the  reapers,  Gather  together  ye  first  the  tares, 
and  bind  them  in  bundles  to  burn  them;  but  gather  the  wheat  into  my 
barn. 

HOW  COMMERCE  MAY  BE  SANCTIFIED. 

♦ 

But  commerce  must  be  refined  by  religion  the  more  religion  avails  it¬ 
self  of  commerce  to  save  the  race.  If  men  put  holiness  into  the  weight, 
the  measure,  the  time,  the  quality  of  their  contribution  to  business,  that 
holiness  will  remain  there  as  an  ingredient.  It  is  the  leaven  that  the 
women  placed  in  three  measures  of  meal.  If  a  certain  brand  of  goods 
goes  out  always  of  standard  quality  and  measure,  that  firm  succeeds, 
while  poor  quality  and  light  weight  firms  die.  By  a  law  of  nature,  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  righteousness  will  endure  in  the  long  run  and  be¬ 
come  a  growing  instinct  of  trade. 

More  than  that,  this  Holy  Spirit  will  see  to  it  that  every  act  tending 
to  universal  good  will  get  into  this  great  current  of  world-reformation. 
Somehow,  the  widow’s  mite  fell  into  this  cosmic  river  and  goes  on  for  all 
time  speaking  the  praises  of  self-denying  charity.  There  are  thousands 
of  our  cults  and  oddities  in  our  creeds  for  which  the  Holy  Spirit  does  not 
care  a  snap.  They  drift  in  the  eddies  along  the  shore  and  are  stranded; 
but  He  is  pledged  that  no  good  word  shall  be  spoken  and  no  good  deed 
be  done  in  vain — the  greater  its  motive,  the  farther  it  will  go  by  its  own 
momentum. 


Of  modern  missions. 


73 


The  future  progress  of  commerce  in  holiness  will  obey  the  law  of  each 
man’s  progress  in  the  same  direction.  His  good  deeds  bless  others  and 
he  is  blessed  in  turn.  With  these  enlarged  resources  of  grace  he  be¬ 
comes  a  greater  blessing  to  his  kind  and  he  himself  is  still  more  blessed. 
And  so  the  reciprocal  work  goes  on.  The  act  of  refining  and  being  re¬ 
fined  is  mutual.  Herein  will  lie  the  great  benefit  of  utilizing  all  the 
church’s  talent,  of  enlisting  the  whole  church  in' missions.  As  active 
business  men  become  engaged  in  evangelizing  the  world,  the  work  will 
progress  with  accelerated  velocity.  These  consecrated  merchants, 
bankers,  manufacturers,  shippers  will  know  where  the  main  currents  of 
the  world’s  activities  are  flowing.  They  will  tell  you  where  to  send  your 
missionaries  to  catch,  to  intercept  the  great  world-caravans  of  influential 
people.  They  themselves  sailing  on  the  currents  of  world-encompassing 
activities  will  lend  their  daily  sanctification  to  enforce  the  teachings  of 
the  men  whom  they  send  to  preach  Christ’s  gospel  to  every  creature. 

Upon  the  tomb  of  the  Hon.  Robert  Y.  Hayne,  of  South  Carolina,  is  this 
inscription:  “Next  to  the  Christian  religion  I  know  of  nothing  to  be 
compared  with  the  influence  of  a  free,  social  and  commercial  intercourse, 
in  softening  asperities,  removing  prejudices,  extending  knowledge  and 
promoting  human  happiness.”  The  truth  of  this  declaration  is  confined 
in  every  treaty,  in  every  international  conference  and  exposition,  in  the 
public  opinion  of  all  nations.  The  doors  opened  by  commerce  for  the 
spread  of  religion  are  innumerable  and  religious  obligations  incalculable. 

THE  BETTERING  OF  COMMERCE  BETTERS  THE  OPPOR- 
TUNITIES  OP  SPREADING  RELIGION. 

* 

All  these  opportunites  are  available,  even  in  the  carrying  on  of  a  com¬ 
merce  not  wholly  sanctified  in  its  appliances,  its  methods  and  the  prod¬ 
ucts  of  its  activities.  But  how  much  better  for  the  sender  and  the  con¬ 
signee  if  the  creative  and  sanctifying  Spirit  of  God  had  breathed  upon 
its  operations  in  the  woods,  the  fields,  the  mines,  the  waters;  in  the  mills 
and  shops:  in  the  wagons  and  cars  and  ships;  in  the  banking  houses  and 
markets  and  expositions;  in  the  minds  and  correspondence  of  its  agents. 
The  railroad  tracks  and  the  ocean  highways  would  be  the  way  of  life;  the 
charts  and  time  tables  and  bills  of  lading  would  be  the  truth,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit  would  be  its  animating  principle.  The  world  would  be  re¬ 
deemed. 

The  reaction  of  the  church  already  upon  commerce  along  che  mission¬ 
ary  line  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  the  translation  of  the  Bible  and  cate¬ 
chisms  and  religious  books  into  many  hundreds  of  languages  have  first 
made  the  world  acquainted  with  those  languages.  You  were  well  in¬ 
structed  on  this  topic  by  Professor  Harris.  The  presence  of  the  Catholic 
missionaries  long  ago  among  the  American  aborigines  taught  them  the 
value  of  their  goods  and  saved  them  from  destruction.  The  same  is  true 


74 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


of  later  missions.  No  men  have  done  more  to  open  up  Africa  to  the 
world-commerce  thau  Livingstone  and  the  other  distinguished  mission¬ 
aries  in  the  same  area.  It  was  the  missionaries  that  saved  our  civilized 
tribes  in  Indian  Territory  from  annihilation. 

ACTION  AND  REACTION. 

The  bringing  of  the  mass  of  Christians  individually  into  this  world- 
encompassing  stream  of  consecration  will  react  upon  the  ethics  of  com¬ 
merce — retail,  wholesale,  interstate  and  international.  The  raising  of 
the  average  moral  tone  of  commerce  in  relation  to  the  Savior’s  teaching 
will  increase  the  sanctifying  and  propagandist  power  of  commerce.  As 
early  man  became  more  civilized,  his  dog  and  his  horse  became  more 
gentle;  as  they  became  more  gentle,  men  became  less  brutal.  These 
great  beasts  of  burden,  called  ships  and  railroad  trains,  may  be  civilized 
and  Christianized  and  these  will  Christianize  and  civilize  in  their  turn, 
just  as  they  have  been  demoralized  and  have  demoralized  in  turn. 

THE  CHURCH  AND  ITS  RESOURCES. 

The  progress  of  the  church  in  availing  itself  of  the  avenues  and  con¬ 
veniences  of  trade  has  not  been  uniform.  The  first  messengers  were  not 
backward  in  this  regard.  During  the  thousand  years  of  darkness,  from 
the  fourth  until  the  thirteenth  century,  both  trade  and  church  were 
sluggish.  The  revival  of  commerce  at  the  centres  of  Venice  and  Genoa 
was  stimulated  first  by  the  crusades  and  these  kindled  the  zeal  for  traffic, 
and  this  created  the  renaissance  of  Europe.  But  the  Moorish  successes 
held  back  this  glory  for  a  while  until  Prince  Henry  the  Navigator  and 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  had  restored  the  cross  to  its  supremacy  in  the 
west.  In  the  next  fifty  years  Columbus  discovered  the  New  World,  John 
Cabot  the  continent  of  North  America,  and  Vasco  deGarna  sailed  around 
the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  India,  to  set  allowing  the  old  stream  westward 
from  that  land.  The  lust  for  gold  and  zeal  for  souls  went  hand  in  hand 
in  all  these  enterprises  down  to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Com¬ 
merce  moved  on  by  its  slow  processes  and  religion  was  only  propagan- 
dism.  Both  were  in  the  streams  but  knew  them  not.  The  resources  of 
spiritual  grace  were  almost  as  hidden  as  the  mines  of  coal,  and  the  dis¬ 
covery  of  the  steam  engine  and  the  commencement  of  Protestant  mis¬ 
sions  were  both  in  the  future.  Carey  was  the  contemporary  of  the  men 
who  conceived  the  locomotive  and  the  steamboat,  and  I  have  been  won¬ 
dering  whether  the  new  spirit  of  missions  would  fill  men’s  hearts  with 
love  as  this  new  age  of  steam  is  filling  their  minds  with  plans  for  gain. 
At  any  rate,  the  world  is  now  explored.  The  world  is  a  network  of 
commercial  activities.  Following  its  teachings  and  using  its  resources, 
there  should  henceforth  be  no  foreign  missions  and  domestic  missions, 
but  world-missions,  world-embracing  missions,  all-the-world-and-every- 
creature  missions,  as  thou  saidst  Blessed  Lord,  at  first. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


THE  CLIMAX. 

Like  Ezekiel,  when  the  Spirit,  of  whom  we  have  been  speaking,  lifted 
him  above  the  earth  as  it  goes  spinning  around  in  space,  we  even  now 
hear  the  noise  of  the  wings  of  the  living  creatures  that  touch  one  an¬ 
other,  so  crowded  are  they  in  the  great  docks,  and  the  noise  of  the 
wheels  over  against  them  and  a  noise  of  a  mighty  rushing. 

Ply  swifter,  ye  white  wings  of  commerce,  and  carry  these  messages  of 
love  over  every  sea.  Spin  faster,  ye  wheels  of  iron  along  your  tracks  of 
steel,  over  every  land — the  noise  of  a  great  rushing  as  of  a  mighty  wind 
attend  you.  Every  sail  speed  forward,  whither  the  spirit  leads,  and 
turn  not  as  ye  go.  And  ye  flying  wheels,  animated  by  the  Holy  One, 
when  He  goes,  go  ye;  when  He  stands  still,  stand  ye;  when  He  is  exalted 
above  the  tricks  and  fashions  of  this  world’s  business,  be  ye  lifted  up 
over  against  Him.  Ply  like  lightning  with  the  message.  Ply,  fly  so 
swiftly,  ye  trains  of  a  sanctified  commerce,  that  nave  and  spokes  and  tire 
be  undistinguishable  in  your  flight,  and  eyes  of  Beryl  sparkle  in  your 
rims.  Anticipate  the  sun,  ye  telegraphic  massages,  passing  on  the 
watchword  from  wall  to  wall  of  the  globe-possessing  Zion.  And  as  the 
hum  of  a  great  city  is  made  up  of  innumerable  sounds  that  rise  and  die, 
let  there  never  be  a  moment  when  the  sound  of  our  Lord’s  praises  shall 
not  fill  the  earth. 


AFTERNOON  SESSION. 

The  discussion  of  the  “Missionary  Outlook”  was  opened 
by  Bro.  Carter  Helm  Jones.  The  outlook  depends  on  him 
who  looks.  One  hundred  years  ago  it  was  described  as  the 
“dream  of  a  dreamer  who  had  dreamed  that  he  had  been 
dreaming.”  Judson  said  that  the  outlook  was  as  bright  as 
the  promises  of  God. 

How  does  it  look  now?  There  are  three  factors:  God,  our¬ 
selves,  the  heathen.  God  loved  them  when  they  were  in 
crime.  He  loved  the  islands  when  their  inhabitants  were 
eating  each  other.  He  gives  his  marching  orders,  “Go  ye.” 
The  world  is  now  open  to  missions.  A  treaty  of  England 
with  mountain-girded  Thibet  will  open  her  soon.  “Behold, 
I  have  set  before  thee  an  open  door.”  Let  us  look  at  our¬ 
selves  as  still  another  factor.  We  are  three  millions.  The 
wealth  that  puts  to  shame  the  fabled  wealth  of  Aladdin’s 
lamp  is  ours.  On  last  Sunday  the  jewels  on  the  bosom  of 


<0 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


Baptists  would  have  sent  hundreds  ot  shijjloads  of  mission¬ 
aries  to  the  benighted. 

There  are  six  thousand  young  men  in  our  colleges  who 
have  expressed  their  willingness  to  go,  if  they  should  have 
an  opportunity.  It  used  to  be  thought  that  only  second-class 
men  went  to  foreign  fields.  Among  this  six  thousand  who 
have  offered  themselves  are  men  of  power  and  godliness. 
The  outlook  of  missions  depends  on  us.  God  loves  them  and 
says,  “Go  ye” — the  doors  are  open.  What  will  we  do?  We 
have  a  trinity  of  calls — God  calls.  We  have  a  Macedonian 
call.  We  have  a  voice  from  behind.  Therefore,  in  view  of 
Carey,  in  view  of  Judson,  let  us  press  forward. 

Bro.  H.  C.  Roberts  followed  with  remarks  on  the  power  of 
prayer  to  give  us  money  for  the  great  missionary  work.  He 
suggested  that  the  pastors  ask  the  people  to  pray  for  missions, 
and  as  we  pray  let  us  open  our  own  pocketbooks. 

Bro.  M.  D.  Jeffries  followed  with  interesting  remarks  about 
personal  piety.  We  don’t  give  because  our  hearts  are  full  of 
the  world.  We  have  the  cash  for  colts,  but  not  for  the 
spread  of  the  Gospel. 

Dr.  P.  S.  Henson,  of  Chicago,  had  promised  to  speak  on 
Tuesday  night,  but  was  providentially  hindered  from  being 
present.  He  sent,  however,  his  address  on 

HEROES. 

There  are  heroes  and  heroes.  There  are  mock  heroes  that  pompously 
display  their  tawdry  trappings  like  the  jackdaw  in  the  fable,  presently 
to  be  plucked  of  their  pretentious  plumage,  and  to  be  exposed  in  their 
native  nakedness  to  the  scorn  of  men  and  angels.  Such  was  the  meteoric 
Boulanger,  who  not  long  ago  blew  out  his  brains — what  little  he  had — 
on  the  grave  of  his  mistress.  The  triumph  of  the  wicked  is  short,  and 
the  memory  of  the  wicked  shall  rot. 

And  there  are  martial  heroes,  some  of  wliom  are  noble  enough,  as 
Gordon  and  Havelock  and  Grant  and  Howard  and  Lee  and  Jackson, 
while  many  accounted  such  have  been  only  remorseless  butchers,  wad¬ 
ing  through  blood  and  making  a  pavement  of  corpses  for  their  march  to 
glory. 

And  there  are  civil  heroes — for  peace  hath  its  victories  no  less  than 
war.  Cicero  was  no  less  a  hero  than  Caesar,  Lincoln  than  Grant,  Colum- 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


i  i 

bus  that  discov^ered  a  new  world  than  Wellington  that  saved  the  old  world 
from  the  ambitious  grasp  of  the  unprincipled  Corsican. 

And  heroes  without  number — all  to  fortune  and  to  fame  unknown — 
village  Hampdens,  mute  inglorious  Miltons,  who  bravely  did  their  duty 
in  inconspicuous  spheres,  and  lived  and  died,  “unknown,  un honored, 
and  unsung.” 

Railroad  engineers,  with  hand  on  the  throttle,  rushing  to  certain 
death,  but  mindful  to  the  last  of  the  precious  freight  of  life  committed 
to  their  charge,  and  sacrificing  their  own  lives  to  save  the  lives  of  oth¬ 
ers.  Firemen  that,  through  smoke  and  flame  and  amid  toppling  walls, 
spring  to  the  rescue  of  imperiled  human  beings.  Patient  and  pale-faced 
wives  and  mothers  that,  with  deathless  love  in  their  hearts,  and  with 
no  eyes  on  them  but  the  angels’  and  God’s,  toil  on  in  the  treadmill  till 
they  drop  exhausted.  Aye,  and  husbands  and  fathers  that,  with  help¬ 
less  families  clinging  to  them,  struggle  on  like  brave  swimmers  in  mad 
waters. 

God  bless  the  heroes  everywhere!  And  he  does  and  will. 

Grim,  grand,  rugged  old  Carlyle  has  written  nobly  of  Heroes  and 
Hero  Worship.  Right  clearly  has  he  shown  how  the  spirit  of  hero 
worship  is  inherent  in  us  all.  and  that  this  ineradicable  spirit  shapes 
our  characters  and  molds  our  destinies.  We  do  well  to  set  before  us 
“The  Ideal  Hero,”  and  the  things  that  must  distinguis'h  him. 

1.  And  first  of  all  there  must  be  breadth  of  view.  The  near-sighted, 
narrow-minded,  hide-bound,  selfish  man  has  not  enough  in  him  to  make 
a  hero  of. 

To  breadth  of  view  great  learning  is  not  always  a  prime  necessity.  A 
man  may  be  a  bookworm  and  be  worth  little  more  than  an  angleworm. 
Many  a  mighty  scholar  have  we  known  who  was  simply  buried  in  books. 
— “plunged  to  the  hilt  in  musty  tomes  and  rusted  in.”  Nor  does  travel 
always  contribute  to  it,  as  the  supreme  selfishness  of  many  a  “globe¬ 
trotter”  that  we  have  occasionally  encountered,  in  our  travels,  conclu¬ 
sively  attests. 

He  only  has  breadth  of  view  who  has  largeness  of  heart.  He  may  be 
an  humble  carpenter,  or  a  “consecrated  cobbler,”  but  he  must  love  God 
and  sympathize  with  man,  must  keep  step  with  time,  and  take  in 
eternity. 

2.  And  there  must  be  height  of  motive. 

There  may  be  fearlessness  to  the  point  of  foolhardiness,  as  in  the  case 
of  him  who  lately  walked  a  tight-rope  across  Niagara’s  awful  gorge,  but 
nobody,  unless  an  idiot,  would  ever  think  of  calling  him  a  hero.  Men 
have  crossed  the  Atlantic  in  a  yawl  boat  just  to  show  that  they  could  do 
it,  but  have  hardly  won  the  admiration  accorded  to  Columbus. 

There  have  been  far  more  brilliant  strategists  than  Washington,  but 
many  of  their  names  are  infamous,  while  his  is  immortal.  It  is  the  altar 
that  sanctifies  the  gift,  and  the  motive  that  glorifies  the  act. 


78 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


It  is  this  that  lifts  to  nobility  what  else  would  be  servility,  and  makes 
foolhardiness  sublimest  heroism.  When  Sam  Patch  jumps  to  his  death 
all  sensible  men  say:  There  goes  a  fool!  But  when  a  brave  swimmer 
leaps  into  a  roaring  flood  to  rescue  a  drowning  child,  as  all  dripping  he 
lays  his  precious  burden  on  the  shore,  Heaven  and  earth  shout:  Bravo! 

When  duty  calls  and  love  girds  for  action,  then  character  rises  to  the 
height  of  the  heroes. 

3.  Bravery  of  encounter  is  another  element  thUt  is  absolutely  essential 
to  the  real  hero. 

There  is  beauty  in  duty,  however  smoothly  the  course  of  duty  runs, 
but  the  quality  of  which  we  have  been  speaking  means  toil  and  tears, 
strife  and  struggle,  battle  and  blood.  It  braves  fire  or  flood,  wild  beasts 
or  the  wilder  fury  of  a  mob.  It  dares  to  stand  for  God  and  truth  against 
a  world  in  arms. 

It  means  Arnold  Winkelried  gathering  up  a  sheaf  of  spear-points  into 
his  own  bosom,  and  so  making  way  for  liberty.  It  means  Curtius  leap¬ 
ing,  with  his  armor  on,  into  the  yawning  gulf  and  closing  the  gulf  by  the 
sacrifice  of  Rome’s  most  precious  thing — a  loyal  heart. 

It  means  Horatius  at  the  bridge,  Leonidas  at  the  pass,  and  Martin 
Luther  at  the  Diet  of  Worms. 

4.  But  the  crowning  glory  of  the  real  hero  is  calm,  invincible  persist¬ 
ency  of  purpose.  Almost  anybody  can  make  a  dash.  A  whirlwind 
sweep  of  cavalry  is  not  the  thing  that  tries  most  sorely  the  metal  of  a 
soldier,  but  the  tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  for  days  and  nights,  beneath  weep¬ 
ing  skies,  over  miry  roads,  hungry  and  cold  and  footsore  and  homesick, 
the  wearisome  work  in  the  trenches,  the  waiting  under  fire  for  the  long 
delayed  order  to  charge  upon  the  enemy. 

The  dauntless  courage  that  holds  right  on  though  sinews  crack,  and 
nerves  quiver,  and  wounds  bleed,  and  darkness  deepens,  and  victory  seems 
far  away;  that  cuts  down  the  bridge  behind,  and  burns  the  ships,  and 
faces  the  foe,  determined  to  do,  and  dare,  and,  if  need  be,  die,  but  never 
fall  back.  This  is  heroism  of  sublimest  sort. 

This  shines  resplendent  in  God’s  Holy  Word,  which  is  nothing  other 
than  a  bundle  of  biographies,  where  truth  is  set  before  us,  not  so  much 
in  philanthropic  sentiments,  and  pious  precepts  as  in  saintly  lives,  radiant 
with  di  vinest  beauty,  and  going  forth  to  highest  duty.  Truth  incarnate 
— this  is  what  the  world  wants  and  the  Bible  gives.  And  while  it  found 
splendid  expression  in  many  Old  Testament  saints,  who,  through  faith, 
subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises, 
stopped  the  mouths  of  liars,  quenched  the  violence  of  fire, 
escaped  the  edge  of  the  sword,  out  of  weakness  were  made 
strong,  waxed  “valiant  in  light  and  put  to  flight  the  armies  of  the 
aliens,”  yet  none  of  these,  nor  all  of  them  together  are,  for  a  moment  to 
be  compared  to  Him  in  whom  humanity  finds  its  culmination  and  its 
crown-  the  Son  of  Man — the  Son  of  God — the  one  ideal,  and  yet  most 
real  hero — Jesus  of  Nazareth — the  “Captain  of  Salvation.” 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


79 


All  otl;iers  are  worthless  paste — He  is  the  priceless  Kooh-i-nor.  All 
others  are  Lilliputians — He  is  the  one  colossal  hero  of  all  the  ages. 

If  breadth  of  view  be  wanted,  what  breadths  of  view  distinguished  him! 

By  birth  He  came  of  Jewish  stock,  and  whatever  may  have  been  true 
of  the  grand  old  patriarch  and  prophets,  the  Jew  had  come  in  Christ’s 
time  to  be  the  very  synonym  of  narrowness  and  bigotry.  He  cordially 
hated  his  neighbors  and  kinsmen,  the  Samaritans,  while  he  despised  the 
Gentiles  as  nothing  othe^  than  dogs.  And  yet  this  Jewish  carpenter 
of  Nazareth  was  broader  than  Galilee,  broader  than  Judea  and  Samaria, 
broader  than  all  the  Orient,  broader  than  Orient  and  Occident,  broader 
than  any  race — all  races — anytime — all  time.  His  view  swept  immensi¬ 
ty  and  eternity  and  all  the  world’s  foremost  thinkers  have  never  come 
up  to  it,  and  never  will  while  the  ages  roll. 

And  what  height  of  motive!  High  as  the  heavens  it  mounted.  Yea, 
what  depth — far  down  to  the  gates  of  hell  stooped  his  love.  Like  Atlas 
he  carried  the  world — only  not  upon  his  shoulders  but  his  heart.  “He 
loved  us  and  gave  himself  for  us,”  and  “greater  love  hath  no  man  than 
this  that  a  man  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends.” 

“He  came  not  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,”  and  can  there  be 
a  nobler  inspiration  than  love  to  man?  Aye,  verily,  there  can  be,  and 
we  make  bold  to  proclaim  it,  in  this  age,  which  is  nothing  if  not  human¬ 
itarian.  Love  to  man  is  beautiful  indeed,  but  it  is  not  the  matter  of  su- 
premest  moment.  “Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy 
heart  and  with  all  thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy 
strength.”  This  is  the  first  and  great  commandment.  Christ  loved  our 
race  and  died  to  redeem  it,  but  his  motive  had  a  higher  mark:  “Lo,  I 
come;  in  the  volume  of  the  Book  it  is  written  of  me;  I  delight  to  do  thy 
will,  O  God.” 

Not  only  was  there  the  impulse  of  the  mightiest  motive,  but  the  mani¬ 
festation  of  the  sublimest  courage.  And  there  was  solemn  need,  for 
never  went  hero  forth  to  such  terrible  encounter.  Hercules  had  his 
mighty  labors~but  no  labors  like  these.  Other  souls  had  had  their 
sorrows,  but  of  a  truth  He  could  say,  “There  is  no  sorrow  like  my  sor¬ 
row.”  He  had  to  face  the  malice  of  men,  and  the  hate  of  hell  alone. 
And  not  only  so,  but  he  had  to  endure  the  wrath  of  God.  It  pleased  the 
Lord  to  bruise  Him.  He  put  Him  to  grief.  He  laid  upon  Him  the  ini¬ 
quity  of  us  all.  One  drop  from  the  vials  of  the  wrath  would  burn  a  sin¬ 
ner  to  a  cinder.  All  the  contents  of  these  were  emptied  on  the  head  of 
Christ.  One  sin  would  sink  a  world  to  hell — so  frightful  would  be  its 
weight.  But  all  the  sins  of  all  the  race  were  laid  upon  the  Lamb  of 
God.  Never  did  Heaven  look  upon  such  anguish  as  He  endured  in  the 
garden  and  on  the  Cross. 

Most  heroes  are  hurried  on  in  blindness  to  their  tragic  fate,  if  tragic 
fate  await  them.  Even  the  immortal  six  hundred  who  made  that  splen¬ 
did  charge  at  Balaklava  knew  not  for  a  certainty  that  every  man  of  them 


80 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


was  riding  to  his  death.  But  Christ  knew.  With  clearest  consciousness 
he  realized  the  dreadful  tragedy  to  which  He  went,  and  yet  he  went 
confronting  all,  comprehending  all;  clear  as  a  clarion  rang  out  the  voice 
of  the  dauntless  hero,  Lo,  I  come. 

Not  only  so,  but  in  Him  as  never  in  any  other  was  there  patient  per¬ 
sistence  to  the  hitter  end.  “He  came  unto  His  own  and  His  own  received 
Him  not.”  Never  was  there  such  lavishment  of  love,  such  expenditure 
of  power  with  such  miserably  poor  apparent  results.  Hated,  hounded, 
betrayed,  forsaken — His  whole  pathway  darkened  by  the  shadow  of  the 
Cross,  He  moved  right  on  with  unstaying  step  and  unfaltering  purpose. 
He  set  His  face  steadfastlj'- to  go  up  to  Jerusalem,  notwithstanding  He 
knew  all  the  anguish  that  awaited  Him  there.  Long  time  before  it  had 
been  said  of  Him:  “He  shall  not  fail  nor  be  discouraged,”  and  he  did  not 
fail,  nor  was  he  discouraged.  Pale,  patient,  wounded,  bleeding,  thorn 
crowned,  ALONE,  he  pressed  forward  past  Gethsemane,  past 
Golgotha,  past  the  gates  of  death  and  hell  until,  over  all  triumphant.  He 
swept  past  at  last  the  gates  of  glory,  and  now  sits  at  the  right  hand  of 
the  Most  High,  from  henceforth  expecting  all  His  enemies  be  made  His 
footstool.  And  they  will  be,  for  “I  saw  Heaven  opened,  and  behold  a 
white  horse  and  he  that  sat  upon  him  was  called  Faithful  and  True,  and 
in  righteousness  he  doth  judge  and  make  war.  His  eyes  were  as  aflame 
of  fire,  and  on  his  head  were  many  crowns,  and  he  had  a  name  Written 
which  no  man  knew  but  he  himself,  and  he  was  clothed  in  a  vesture  dip¬ 
ped  in  blood,  and  his  name  is  called  ‘The  Word  of  God,’  and  the  armies 
which  are  in  Heaven  followed  him  upon  white  horses,  clothed  in  fine 
linen,  white  and  clean.  And  out  of  his  mouth  goeth  a  sharp  sword,  that 
with  it  he  should  smite  the  nations,  and  he  shall  rule  them  with  a  rod 
of  iron;  and  he  treadeth  the  winepress  of  the  fierceness  and  wrath  of 
Almighty  God.  And  he  hath  on  his  vesture  and  on  his  thigh  a  name 
written,  KING  OF  KINGS,  AND  LORD  OF  LORDS.” 

And  this  is  the  Hero  of  Heroes,  triumphant  at  last,  and  triumphant 
forever. 

And  they  only  that  followed  Him,  whether  on  earth  or  in  Heaven,  are 
worthy  of  the  name  of  heroes. 

There  are  many  that  bear  the  Christian  name  that  can  scarcely  be 
reckoned  Christian  Knights.  Thirty  thousand  names  were  on  Gideon’s  ‘ 
muster  roll,  but  only  three  hundred  of  them  made  themselves  immortal. 
One  star  differeth  from  another  star  in  glory— so  is  it  in  the  Church 
Militant,  and  so  will  it  be  in  the  Church  Triumphant. 

What  constellated  glory  shines  in  the  eleventh  of  Hebrews!  How 
Noah  shines  in  the  midst  of  Antedeluvian  darkness!  And  how  grandly 
heroic  are  the  proportions  of  the  patriarch  of  Uz,  and  of  Moses,  the  Man 
of  God,  and  Caleb  and  Joshua!  Time  would  fail  me  to  speak  of  the  mag¬ 
nificent  men  that  loom  colossal  amid  the  shadows  of  the  Old  Testament 
dispensation.  But,  perhaps,  next  to  Jesus  Christ  the  man  who  towers  to 


Of  modern  missions. 


81 


the  loftiest  stature  and  kindles  the  intensest  enthusiasm  in  every  pious 
heart  is  the  man  who,  as  the  great  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles,  went  forth 
the  very  embodiment  of  the  Great  Commission,  a  tireless  herald  of  the 
truth  and  a  fearless  soldier  of  the  Cross. 

Every  known  element  found  in  him  its  noblest  expression.  If  breadth 
of  view  be  wanted  his  has  never  been  surpassed.  Three  civilizations 
centered  in  him.  He  had  the  culture  of  the  Greek,  the  imperial  quality 
of  the  Roman,  and  the  religious  fervor  of  the  Jew,  when  the  Jew  was 
brought  to  his  best  by  the  impartation  of  the  grace  of  God  by  Jesus 
Christ.  No  pent  up  Utica  contracted  his  powers.  A  Christian  cosmo¬ 
politan  he  showed  himself,  if  ever  there  was  one.  Other  men  have  had 
particular  nationalities  laid  especially  upon  their  hearts,  but  Paul,  like 
his  Master,  bore  up  the  whole  round  world  on  his. 

And  if  motive  ever  glorified  a  hero  then  this  great  foreign  missionary 
was  entitled  to  the  foremost  plan.  No  salary  lured  him — with  his  own 
hands  he  ministered  to  his  necessities.  “I  seek  not  yours  but  you”  was 
the  emphatic  declaration  of  his  lips  and  it  was  proved  by  the  matchless 
demonstration  of  his  life.  Never  was  there  deeper,  tenderer  love  to 
man — never  profounder,  truer  love  to  God. 

“Whether  we  be  beside  ourselves  it  is  to  God,  whether  we  be  sober  it 
is  for  your  cause” — such  was  the  spirit  that  impelled  and  sustained  him. 

And  never  did  braver  heart  than  his  beat  in  human  bosom.  Prom  the 
first  he  understood  that  it  was  no  dress  parade  to  which  he  was  sum¬ 
moned.  The  Lord  had  showed  him  how  great  things  he  must  suffer  for 
his  name’s  sake.  But  he  was  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision,  nor 
was  he  ever  daunted  by  the  perils  that  perpetually  beset  his  path.  Im¬ 
prisoned,  whipt,  stoned,  left  for  dead,  shipwrecked,  baffled,  deserted, 
misrepresented,  hunted  to  the  very  gates  of  death  by  the  hounds  of 
hell — knowing  that  in  every  city  “bonds  and  afflictions”  awaited  him — 
and  yet  in  the  midst  of  all  he  could  calmly  exclaim,:  “None  of  these 
things  move  me,  neither  count  I  my  own  life  dear  unto  myself  so  that  I 
might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry  whieh  I  have  secured 
of  the  Lord  Jesus.” 

No  sadder  spirit  of  splendid  valor  distinguished  this  heroic  mission¬ 
ary  leader,  but  patient  persistence  through  all  the  long  and  weary  years 
*  of  that  wonderful  life  of  unselfish  devotion  to  God  and  man,  so  that  at 
the  close  of  it  he  could  sincerely  say:  “I  have  fought  a  good  fight,  I  have* 
finished  my  course,  I  have  kept  the  faith:  henceforth  there  is  laid  up 
for  me  a  crown  of  righteousness  which  the  Lord,  the  righteous  judge, 
shall  give  me  in  that  day.” 

“Lives  of  great  men  all  remind  us 
.  We  can  make  our  own  sublime.” 

And  no  nobler  inspiration  can  come  to  us  from  the  contemplation  of 
characters  aglow  with  holy  enthusiasm  and  devoted  to  the  highest  ser- 


82 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


vice  that  ever  enlisted  mortal  man.  There  are  such  heroes  even  now,  as 
there  were  in  the  olden  time.  Many  a  time  we  recognize  them  only 
when  laid  out  for  burial,  and  discover  too  late  that  we  had  been  enter¬ 
taining  angels  unawares.  Many  of  them  will  he  uncovered  when  the 
secrets  of  all  hearts  shall  be  revealed,  and  we  shall  find  that  some,  not 
much  accounted  of  in  their  day  and  generation,  were  really  making  the 
bravest  of  fights,  and  displaying  a  splendid  heroism  which  shall  be  glo¬ 
riously  “rewarded  in  the  resurrection  of  the  just.”  But  after  all  one 
cannot  fail  to  feel  that  the  grandest  of  heroes  and  heroines  are  those  who 
hearing  the  hour  of  the  Great  Commission,  and  hearing  the  wail  of  a 
perishing  world,  tear  themselves  loose  from  all  the  tender  ties  that  bind 
them  to  their  homes  and  friends,  and  animated  by  a  quenchless  love,  and 
armed  with  an  invincible  purpose,  say,  “Lo,  I  come!  I  delight  to  do  thy 
will,  O  God!” 

Let  me  not  be  understood,  as  disparaging,  for  a  moment,  any  other 
form  of  service.  Any  act  of  duty  is  a  thing  of  beauty,  but  it  is  not  all 
duty  that  rises  to  the  height  of  the  heroes. 

Such  heroism  is  sometimes  demanded  in  our  daily  duties’  here,  for 
often  the  battle  rolls  to  our  gates,  and  rages  in  our  streets,  and  we  have 
urgent  need  to  gird  ourselves,  and  quit  ourselves  like  men.  But  when 
one  leaves  every  long  loved  scene  of  life,  and  plunges  into  deepest  dark¬ 
ness,  resolved  to  do,  to  dare,  to  die,  if  need  be,  that  those  who  are  per¬ 
ishing  for  lack  of  knowledge  may  hear  the  glorious  gospel’s  sound — this 
is  something  that  quickens  the  heart  throb  in  every  generous  bosom  and 
wakens  the  applause  of  earth  and  heaven. 

And  when,  as  in  the  expression  of  Carey  and  Marshman  and  "Ward, 
and  Judson  and  multitudes  more  this  self-sacrificing  service  is  protracted 
for  weary,  toilsome  years,  and  every  word  of  truth  and  deed  of  love 
seems  as  water  spilt  upon  the  ground  that  cannot  be  gathered  up  again — 
when  sickness  wastes  the  frame,  and  trials  oppress  the  heart — when  the 
heathen  mock  and  turn  away,  and  friends  lose  heart  and  withdraw  sup¬ 
port — when  nothing  seems  to  come  of  love’s  labor  but  disappointment 
and  disaster — to  hold  on  in  spite  of  all  that,  and  feel  at  such  a  time,  as 
Judson  felt,  at  such  a  time,  that  “The  prospect  is  as  bright  as  the  prom¬ 
ises  of  God” — this  is  heroism,  the  sublimest  that  mortal  ever  displayed 
in  the  sight  of  heaven. 

Oh,  brethren,  we  have  fallen  upon  easy  going,  pleasure  loving  times, 
even  for  the  Church  of  Christ,  when  we  seek  to  make  religion  winsome 
by  eliminating  from  it  all  the  severer  elements  that  used  to  make  it 
grandly  heroic. 

Our  favorite  strain  is  the  one  which  declares  that  religion  never  was 
designed  to  make  our  pleasures  less,  while  we  hear  less  than  aforetimes 
of  tears  and  blood.  If  the  church  has  lost  something  of  its  fibre;  if  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  lost  something  of  its  attractiveness  for  manly  souls  the  rea¬ 
son,  possibly,  is  not  far  to  seek.  Let  us  have  less  of  picnic  presentation, 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


83 


and  more  of  call  to  battle.  Let  us  give  all  men  to  understand  that  the 
Church’s  mission  is  nothing  other  than  the  conquest  of  the  world,  and 
that  what  it  wants  is  not  self-indulgent  professors  of  religion,  but  mar¬ 
tial  heroes,  who  in  faith  and  love  will  catch  up  the  standard  of  the  cross 
and  bear  it  in  triumph  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 


In  the  absence  of  Dr.  Henson  Tuesday  night,  whose  speech 
was  afterward  furnished  as  above,  Dr.  Ellis  spoke  on  “Giv¬ 
ing.  ”  The  only  way  to  resist  covetousness  in  the  heart  is  by 
liberal  giving.  People  should  give  till  they  love  to  give. 
Love  does  not  stop  to  measure  its  giving.  Witness  the 
woman  who  gave  the  spikenard  to  Christ  and  the  widow 
who  gave  her  two  mites,  which  constituted  “all  her  living.” 
Love  sacrifices  itself  in  giving,  and  delights  thus  to  sacri¬ 
fice  itself.  This  great  Centennial  movement  calls  for  the 
most  devoted  giving.  The  eyes  of  all  the  land  are  on  Louis¬ 
ville  Baptists,  and  much  depends  on  what  they  do.  He 
made  a  powerful  appeal  for  men  and  women  of  wealth  to 
give  at  least  two  per  cent,  of  their  property  to  this  cause. 
He  called  on  the  young  men  and  on  those  who  were  wage 
earners  to  consecrate  a  tenth  of  a  year’s  income  to  this  Cen¬ 
tennial,  and  he  urged  young  ladies  and  others  living  in  com¬ 
fort,  but  without  income  of  their  own,  to  make  sacrifices. 
“God  loves  the  cheerful  giver.”  Let  us  all  go  on  record  this 
year  as  “God’s  cheerful  givers.” 

Dr.  R.  Ryland  said,  from  the  chair:  “I  will  this  year  give 
five  times  my  usual  offering.” 

• 

Several  brief  speeches  followed.  Dr.  Weddell,  of  Chicago, 
urged  that  the  luxury  of  giving  begins  when  we  give  more 
than  ten  per  cent,  of  our  income.  If  we  love  God  shall  we 
not  delight  to  give  to  what  He  loves? 

Dr.  J.  Wm.  Jones  said,  this  Centennial  is  no  accident;  it  is 
the  voice  of  God. 

Prof.  O.  T.  Mason  spoke  of  the  cotton  of  the  South  as  go¬ 
ing  all  over  the  world.  If  Sonthern  Baptists  would  send 


84 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


Bible  truth  wherever  their  cotton  goes,  ere  long  the  world 
would  be  evangelized. 

Dr.  J.  B.  Hawthorne  thought  the  work  of  raising  this  Cen¬ 
tennial  fund  was  not  a  difficult  one  for  Southern  Baptists  if 
only  they  could  be  made  to  feel  their  obligation  and  to  ap¬ 
preciate  their  opportunity. 

Dr.  F.  H.  Kerfoot  wanted  some  plan  set  on  foot  to  raise 
this  fund.  He  thought  it  well  to  form  bands  who  would  give 
each  f$25.00,  $50.00,  $100.00,  or  more.  He  would  be  glad  to 
belong  to  such  bands  and  to  induce  others  to  join. 

The  Kev.  F.  D.  Hale,  though  all  his  salary  had  been  alloted, 
would  gladly  give  $100.00  to  this  Centennial  fund.  His 
church  was  seeking  to  get  one  cent  a  day  for  the  year  from 
each  member.  One  little  girl  has  already  $22.00. 

The  Chairman  of  the  Committee  (T.  T.  Eaton)  then  an¬ 
nounced  that  Dr.  Powell’s  services  had  been  secured  to  take 
the  field  for  the  Centennial.  While  he  would  in  every  way 
practicable  stimulate  an  enlargement  of  the  regular  work 
arid  the  sending, out  of  new  missionaries,  he  would  give  his 
special  attention  to  securing  the  fund  of  $250,000  for  perma¬ 
nent  work.  This,  being  a  special  fund,  must  necessarily  be 
raised  by  a  special  effort,  but  it  is  *  understood  that  what  is 
given  to  this  fund  is  to  be  in  addition  to  what  is  contributed 
for  the  carrying  on  and  for  the  enlargement  of  the  regular 
work. 

Dr.  R.  Ryland  spoke  a  few  appropriate  words  in  closing 
the  meeting,  and  dismissed  the  assembly  with  a  benediction. 


OF  MODERN  MISSIONS. 


85 


INTERESTING  FIGURES 

PRESENTED  BY  PROF.  O.  T.  MASON  AT  THE  MIS¬ 
SIONARY  CENTENNIAL  MEETINGS. 


ITEMS  OP  THE  WORLD'S 
COMMERCE. 


P5 


Amount. 


Population  of  the  world . 

Population  of  the  United  States . 

English  speaking  people . 

Emigrants  from  Europe  since  Waterloo. 

Persons  supported  in  commerce . 

Persons  engaged  in  commerce . 

Exports  and  imports  of  the  United  States 

Wealth  of  commercial  nations . 

Wealth  of  United  States . 

Money,  amount  in  the  world . 

Annual  incomes  of  the  world . 

Revenues  of  the  world . 

World’s  commerce . 

Am’t  stocks  quoted  in  London  markets. 

Banking  power  of  the  world  . 

English  budget  estimates . 

Capital  and  deposits  in  banks . 

Gross  receipts,  U.  S.  Government . 

Expenditures,  U.  S.  Government . 

Public  debt  United  States . 

State,  county,  municipal  school  debt  U.S. 

Amount  of  coin  and  bullion,  U.  S . 

Clearing  house  transactions,  U.  S . 

Clearing  house  transactions, world . 

Steam  power  in  the  world . 

Pood  consumption . 

World’s  cotton . 

U nited  States  cotton . 

Coal  consumed  in  the  world . 

Alcoholic  drinks  in  the  world . 


1882 

1890 
1888 

1888 

1888 

1891 
1888 
1888 

1890 
1888 
1889 
1889 
1889 
1888 

1891 
1880 
1891 
1891 
1891 
1891 
1891 
1891 
1888 
1888 
1888 
1888 
1888 
1889 
1888 


Containing  alcohol . 

Liquor  consumed  in  U.  S . 

World’s  mining*. . 

Domestic  animals  (mammals) . 
Shipping  of  the  world  (steam) 
Shipping  of  the  world  (sail)  . . 

Tonnage  by  shipping . 

Light  houses .  . . 


1891 

1880 

1888 

1888 

1888 

1887 

1890 


$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

$ 

*  '  $ 

$ 

■$ 

$ 

horse 

tons 

pounds 

pounds 

tons 

gals. 

gals. 

gals. 

tons 

tons 

tons 

tons 


1,434,000,000 

62,622,250 

111,000,000 

27,000,000 

350,128,000 

141,790,000 

1,728,789,860 

294,686,000,000 

62,796,400,000 

1,167,372,000,000 

4,356,018,000,000 

4,764,155,000,000 

16,378,350,000,000 

2,400,750,000,000 

1,550,545,000,000 

425,000,000 

12,515,000,000 

765,821,305 

731,126,376 

610,529,120 

1,135,351,871 

1,497,440,707 

56,803,253,957 

100,000,000,000 

50,150,000 

175,840,000,000 

4,783,000,000 

3,420,000,000 

485,000,000 

5,733,000,000 

605,000,000 

117,767,101 

2,500,000,000 

1,000,000,000 

36,160,000 

12,642,000 

139,000,000 

6,208 


86 


CENTENNIAL  CELEBRATION 


INTERESTING  FIGURES.— Continued. 


ITEMS  OF  THE  WORLD’S 

COMMERCE. 

Year. 

Metric 

Unit. 

Amount. 

Cost  of  docks  and  harbors  in  use  now. . . 

49,572,000,000 

Mileage  of  canals  and  rivers . 

196,366 

Mileage  of  railroads  in  the  world . 

1891 

437.262 

Mileage  of  railroads  in  the  world . 

1888 

miles 

354,310 

Passengers  by  rail . 

1888 

2,362,000,000 

Goods  %  rail . . . . 

1888 

tons 

1,424,000,000 

Cose  of  the  world’s  railroads. . . 

27,619,600,000 

Receipts  of  railroads,  world . 

1890 

$ 

1,097,847,000 

Letters  sent  through  mails  . 

1888 

8,569,000,000 

Papers  sent  through  mails . 

1888 

8,759,000,000 

Postal  revenues . 

1888 

$ 

287,226,000 

Monthly  issue  of  newspapers,  etc . 

1890 

813,000,000 

Telegrams  sent  in  the  world . 

1890 

162,023,736 

Telegraphs  of  the  world  (lines) . 

1890 

miles 

780,433 

Total  capital  in  electricity,  U.  S . 

1890 

$ 

600,000,000 

Total  capital  in  telegraphs,  U.  S . 

1890 

$ 

120,000,000 

Total  capital  in  telephones,  U.  S . 

1890 

$ 

80,000,000 

Total  capital  in  lighting,  U.  S . 

1890 

$ 

300,000,000 

Total  capital  in  supplies,  U.  S . 

1890 

$ 

100,000,000 

Telegraph  messages,  U.  S . 

1891 

59,143,343 

Telephone  connections . 

1891 

450,000,000 

Spent  by  American  tourists  in  Europe. . 

1889 

$ 

100,000,000 

%.  IJ 

■  ^ 


'^S 


■'■.4 


i 


